Fine balance between risk and reward

pensionS

Trustees face the challenge of trying to narrow the funding gap between pension fund assets and liabilities

Over the past few years, life has not been easy for pension fund trustees, fund managers or people facing retirement. Today, more than five years after the equity market bubble burst, the pension industry is still suffering from its effects, yet new challenges continue to present themselves. Although the value of assets held by pension funds has improved since the stock market hit a low in March 2003, as the graph below shows, the value of liabilities has also increased, leaving the funding gap - the difference between pension fund assets and liabilities - at a similar level to two years...