Latest trends from the world’s largest pension funds

Assets under management (AUM) at the world’s top 300 pension funds increased by 8.9% to reach a new record, now totalling US$23.6 trillion in 2021. This is according to the annual research conducted by the Thinking Ahead Institute, in conjunction with Pensions & Investments, a leading U.S. investment newspaper.

In this episode, we chat with Marisa Hall, Co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute, and Roger Urwin, Co-founder of the Institute, about the key data points from the research. In addition they cover overarching trends in the pension funds industry and the direction of travel.

Our study shows that the top 300 pension funds increased by 8.9% to a record US$23.6 trillion…Compared to last year this has been a slow down of growth but we don’t want to read too much into those one year numbers…What we are seeing now as we move into this new period…is that it will become more difficult for investors.

(This) narrative is… a tale of two halves. We see this growth but we see storms ahead. We see sustainability being very important but we continue to see the politicisation of ESG happening in various regions. And we see pension funds…yes focus on their long-term sustainability goals but actually really needing to baton down the hatches.
Marisa Hall, Co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute