How defined benefit pension plans manage risk and returns

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Pension plans seek to balance risk, return, and liquidity.

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In a defined benefit pension plan, funds are set aside by the employer today to pay workers later, in retirement. But the money doesn’t just sit there; it’s invested, with an eye toward earning outsize returns. Those invested funds need to grow to meet future needs, although estimating just how much the plan will require can be difficult. 

There are several variables to consider, such as when workers will retire, how long they’ll live, and how much they’ll be making when they retire. Pension fund managers rely on diversification—allocating money to an array of investments, including alternative assets—to generate high, risk-adjusted returns and ensure retirees get paid.

Before the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, many employers relied on a pay-as-you-go method for their pension plans. Rather than setting money aside to meet future obligations, they simply budgeted the funds needed to cover each year’s pension obligations. This approach was simple, but it often failed employers when retirement benefits proved to be greater than expected—and it failed employees if the company went bankrupt, leaving them with only a fraction of the benefits due, or nothing at all.

In a defined benefit pension plan, employers set aside funds for employees, who receive the money in retirement. ERISA specified that pension plan assets belong to plan beneficiaries and that employers are legally obligated to pay those benefits as promised.

Each year employers must estimate their pension obligations, include them in their financial statements, and set aside funds in a trust to ensure the pension plan can meet its obligations.

State and local government pension plans are exempt from ERISA, but typically follow similar investment and management principles.

Although millions of workers are covered by defined benefit plans, they represent only a fraction of the workforce. Most workers, if they have a retirement plan at all, are covered by defined contribution plans such as a 401(k).

A pension plan has three sets of interested parties:

Each of these parties has different interests. The investment managers navigate the divide between the plan sponsors and the participants. They have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize risk-adjusted returns for the plan participants and, ideally, reduce the contributions that are needed from the plan sponsor.

In addition to risk and return, investment managers must also manage liquidity—they must have funds on hand to pay current retirees. The plan sponsor can cover this expense from its current budget, income generated from investments, or both. The investment manager must ensure the portfolio generates enough income to cover its share of the payments, or that the funds are invested in assets that can be sold easily to raise cash.

Public plan asset managers have a greater challenge. Although plan sponsors know about pension plan best practices, they often opt to spend less taxpayer money up front in the hope that asset managers will post large returns. Critics say many government pension plans are overly optimistic about their ability to generate the kinds of returns needed to meet future obligations, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook to make up the difference.

Institutional money managers are paid well to balance these needs. It’s a competitive industry, one filled with consultants who advise plan sponsors on the best asset managers and strategies to meet their needs.

After taking care of liquidity needs, pension investment managers address risk-adjusted return by investing in assets that have little correlation with the stock market. Known as alternative investments, examples include private equity, private debt, venture capital, hedge funds, and real estate. These assets make the overall portfolio less risky than it might be if it were invested only in stocks and bonds while seeking to generate higher returns. Pension plans allocated about a third of their funds to alternative investments in 2022, according to Preqin, an investment data aggregator. 

Most alternative investments are available only to investors who can commit large sums for several years. An investment in a new office building, for example, may not return any cash while it’s under construction. Once leasing starts, investors receive rental income, but the big payoff comes when the building is sold. It may take five years to receive any income, and 15 or more years to receive the investment back. Compare that with buying stock, which can be sold seconds after it’s purchased.

Smaller pension funds or those with high liquidity demands invest mostly in stocks and bonds. These investments generate income from dividends and interest and are easy to sell, with no lockup periods or withdrawal fees. The trade-off is a lower risk-adjusted return. Even if the pension plan invests entirely in traditional assets, it must be highly diversified to comply with ERISA and fulfill its pension obligations.

Defined benefit pension plans face the challenge of providing not only for today’s retirees but also for future generations of workers who are counting on a secure retirement. They look to achieve these aims by diversifying their holdings and including alternative investments, such as private equity and real estate. They must also meet funding and reporting requirements established by ERISA to ensure they meet their obligations to retirees.

These demands, combined with the other inherent complexities of running a defined benefit plan, are why many employers no longer offer them and have instead embraced defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s. That shift has placed the burden of ensuring there’s enough money to last throughout retirement on workers themselves—which presents its own set of challenges.