Punter Southall Transaction Service has launched a research report which asks whether widespread investor fear now presents a golden opportunity to those investors who fully understand the existing defined benefit pension scheme environment.
Experience for pension schemes has been a true “Pensions Apocalypse” with deficits continually increasing despite ever greater deficit correction payments. Frustrated with the constant stream of bad news, the majority of investors perceive an investment in a company with a defined benefit pension scheme to be a “Poisoned Chalice”.
The report details the four key obstacles (or horsemen of the Pensions Apocalypse) that have faced defined benefit pension funds over the last 15 years, and identifies how each of these might now present an opportunity for investors.
Richard Jones, Managing Director of Punter Southall Transaction Services, comments:
“The four horsemen, detailed in the report, are clearly on the wane and much less likely to be negative factors going forward. Indeed there is room for significant optimism that they could start to drive improvements in the funding position of pension schemes. For even the most risk averse, innovative solutions now exist to mitigate any perceived risk. Pension schemes should therefore no longer be viewed as a “Poisoned Chalice” and those of an optimistic bent have reason enough to start considering them a “Golden Opportunity”.