America’s largest corporate pension plans are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the bond market and out of riskier assets like stocks after soaring equity prices helped plug their funding gaps for the first time in over a decade.
Industry experts estimate that as much as 10 per cent of assets in the $3tn corporate pension industry have been transferred to less risky assets since the start of the coronavirus pandemic due to a recent surge in the financial health of pension plans. Their “insatiable demand’‘ is helping to prop up prices for high-quality debt.
Since the start of 2020, the average funded ratio of the 100 largest corporate plans in the US has jumped from 88 per cent to 98 per cent, and is on track to soon pass 100 per cent for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, according to pension advisory firm Milliman. Funded ratios measure the value of a pension plan’s assets relative to how much it will have to pay out in future.