Editorial
Four years ago, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about an instant and permanent shift in the way many of us work. Virtual communication has replaced much of the face-to-face contact that we had previously been accustomed to. While the convenience and savings of web-conferencing means it’s a trend that’s here to stay, in-person interaction still retains many benefits.
This June, the Amundi World Investment Forum gathered clients from across the globe to a two-day conference in Paris. It is an occasion for learning about the many different trends that are transforming our lives. The ever-accelerating technological advances that continue to revolutionise working life form part of these. However, these such events are also a platform for connection and sharing experience with fellow investment professionals face-to-face, building relationships and fostering collaboration.
A series of peer-to-peer sessions were held as one of the formal settings for this type of exchange. Our first article of this Pension Fund Letter reviews some of the main points of discussion at the peer-to-peer group for pension funds. We hope to host further sessions for this type of exchange, both virtually and in-person, allowing you to continue and broaden the discussions in a format that works best for you.
Our second article turns to another trend that is reshaping our lives in different ways; geopolitics. A major topic at the 2024 Forum, here we focus on how we track geopolitical risk and the main risks to watch out for in the next six months. We also look at the results of some of the recent elections and what these might mean for investors.
We then turn to an evolution specific to the pensions market: the switch towards DC schemes. More particularly, we consider how to manage the distribution phase in the context of different investment goals and longer life-expectancy. We explain how a new way of optimising retirement portfolios could help.
Finally, we finish with our regular review of pension funding ratios. As record market performance continues to improve funding ratios, countries such as the UK are starting to consider options for dealing with their large surpluses. We take a closer look.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Forging connections and sharing pension experience
- Tracking rising geopolitical risk & monitoring election outcomes
- How to design a decumulation strategy that optimises the goals of the pension-holder?
- Favourable markets improved pension funding ratios once again
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