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The views expressed are those of the author at the time of writing. Other teams may hold different views and make different investment decisions. The value of your investment may become worth more or less than at the time of original investment. While any third-party data used is considered reliable, its accuracy is not guaranteed. For professional, institutional, or accredited investors only.
Key Points
- Corporate plan ROAs are declining gradually, a trend we expect will continue due to several factors, including low yields and adoption of LDI strategies.
- Revision activity in public plan ROA assumptions has picked up somewhat in recent years but is still slower than for corporate counterparts. The latest reported average ROA assumption is 7.1%.
- In terms of capital market expectations, we continue to predict that long-term equity and bond returns will not keep pace with the returns of the last 50+ years.
- We recommend that sponsors develop their investment policy based on their specific risk and return objectives and time horizon, rather than tying investment policy to a specific long-term ROA to manage pension expense or the reported liability.
AS PART OF THEIR YEAR-END REPORTING PROCESS, US corporate and public defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors must set an assumption for the long-term expected return on assets, or ROA. To help sponsors make more informed decisions, we provide this annual update on ROA assumptions, including our latest trend analysis and long-term capital market assumptions.
Corporate plans
Corporate sponsors use the ROA assumption to determine the pension expense recognized on their income statements. Under US accounting standards, the pension expense includes a credit (income) equal to the plan’s expected return on assets during the fiscal year.
The average ROA assumption reported by S&P 500 companies at year-end 2020 was 6.0%, about 30 basis points (bps) lower than in 2019 (see Figure 1 in PDF available below). This continues a downward trend. The average assumption has fallen 210 bps since 2006, when the introduction of mark-to-market balance sheet accounting for pension plans by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the passage of the Pension Protection Act by Congress first prompted many plan sponsors to reevaluate their investment…
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Nearing the finish line: Ideas on end-state investing for corporate DB plans
As corporate plans approach their fully funded “end state,” new goals will need to be set. Members of our LDI team share their research on this transition and the required realignment of asset allocation strategies, including changes in return-seeking and liability-hedging portfolios and key liquidity considerations.
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Article
2023-04-30
Preserving funded-ratio stability in volatile markets
Faced with extreme market volatility in the early months of 2022, what can corporate DB plan sponsors do to potentially provide stability in their portfolios while still pursuing longer-term funding aspirations? Multi-Asset Strategist Amy Trainor offers thoughts on rerisking, hedge ratios, and liability-hedging and return-seeking allocations.
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Article
2023-03-31
Building a terminal credit portfolio: a practical guide
We propose a three-step process for de-risking, which aims to lock in improvements in funded ratios while providing a clear path for transitioning towards the terminal portfolio.
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Article
2022-11-30
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Past performance is no guarantee of future performance and can be misleading. Funds returns are shown net of fees.
Source: Wellington Management
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