U.S. Pension Funds Rethinking Investment Management

Chatham Partners said its pulse survey conducted this week with senior investment executives of some of the largest pension programs in the U.S. found that 54% feel recent events will significantly or somewhat significantly alter their overall defined benefit plan’s investment strategy, while only 12% anticipated little or no change.

Sixteen percent of respondents say they plan to make a change to their investment managers within the next six months directly as a result of the current market conditions, while an additional 36% indicated they were unsure of their near term intentions. In addition, almost a third (32%) indicated that they will alter the way they select and monitor their investment managers within the next six months as a result of the market conditions, while a additional 30% were unsure of their near term intentions, according to a Chatham press release.

While 34% of the pension investment executives surveyed have concluded that the long term management of their pension plan, as well as their expectations of their investment managers, will be significantly impacted by the current crisis, 42% indicated they had not yet made up their minds. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents feel that recent events will have little long term impact on management of their plans investments.

Chatham found 40% of the investment executives indicated that in-person meetings with investment managers to provide information on the crisis had not been offered. However, when they did occur, a vast majority felt they were useful, with in-person meetings and senior management interaction the most valued form of interactions.

Interested parties may contact Peter Starr at pstarr@chathampartners.net for a summary of the pulse data.