IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v1y2001i4d10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240025.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Equity performance of segregated pension funds in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • A Thomas

    (CMPO, University of Bristol)

  • I Tonks

    (Professor of Finance in the Department of Economics at the University of Bristol)

Abstract

We investigate the performance of the UK equity portfolios of 2,175 segregated UK pension funds over the period 1983–97. We find that there is similar pattern in the returns on most of the pension funds and the FT All Share index, leading us to conclude that most funds in the sample are ‘closet trackers’. Any measures of outperformance were therefore bound to be small. Over the whole period and across all funds, average outperformance was insignificantly different from zero. We investigated the sensitivity of the fund returns to the addition of a size premium, which we found to be significant, and important for the smaller funds in our sample. During three sub-periods, we found that there was significant average underperformance during the strong bull market of the mid-1980s, but significant outperformance since 1987. In particular in the period 1987–92, the average outperformance across pension funds was one half of a percentage point per year. Decomposing this abnormal performance, we found that most of it could be explained by the ability of both large and small funds to time the size premium. On the whole, there were negative returns to both selectivity and to market timing. There was little evidence of any differences in the performance between mature and immature funds.

Suggested Citation

  • A Thomas & I Tonks, 2001. "Equity performance of segregated pension funds in the UK," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(4), pages 321-343, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:1:y:2001:i:4:d:10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240025
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240025
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fabrice Hervé, 2008. "Fonds de retraite et performance:la famille compte-t-elle ?," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 11(2), pages 79-104, June.
    2. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & O'Sullivan, Niall, 2008. "UK mutual fund performance: Skill or luck?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 613-634, September.
    3. Anastasia Petraki & Anna Zalewska, 2017. "Jumping over a low hurdle: personal pension fund performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 153-190, January.
    4. Mercedes Alda, 2021. "The dilemma between fund‐style consistency and active management over the economic cycle. Evidence from pension funds," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 2219-2240, April.
    5. Fabrice Hervé, 2008. "Fonds de retraite et performance:la famille compte-t-elle? - Pension Funds performance: does family matter?," Working Papers CREGO 1080503, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    6. Ian Tonks, 2005. "Performance Persistence of Pension-Fund Managers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(5), pages 1917-1942, September.
    7. Fabrice Hervé, 2006. "Famille de fonds de pension, performance et persistance de la performance," Working Papers CREGO 1060903, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    8. Lawrence Kryzanowski & Abdul Rahman, 2008. "Portfolio performance ambiguity and benchmark inefficiency revisited," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(5), pages 321-332, December.
    9. Fabrice Hervé, 2006. "Les fonds de pension protègent-ils les investisseurs des évolutions du marché?," Working Papers CREGO 1060101, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    10. Ian Tonks, 2002. "(UBS Pensions Series 1) Performance Persistence of Pension Fund Managers," FMG Discussion Papers dp423, Financial Markets Group.
    11. Dirk Nitzsche & Keith Cuthbertson & Niall O'Sullivan, 2005. "Mutual Fund Performance: Skill Or Luck?," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2005 4, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    12. Anastasia Petraki & Anna Zalewska, 2013. "Jumping over a low hurdle: Personal pension fund performance," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 13/305, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    13. Alexandros Kostakis, 2009. "Performance measures and incentives: loading negative coskewness to outperform the CAPM," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5-6), pages 463-486.
    14. Gregory, Alan & Tonks, Ian, 2004. "Performance of personal pension schemes in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24698, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Carlos Pestana Barros & Maria Teresa Medeiros Garcia, 2006. "Performance Evaluation of Pension Funds Management Companies with Data Envelopment Analysis," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 9(2), pages 165-188, September.
    16. Alda, Mercedes & Andreu, Laura & Sarto, José Luis, 2017. "Learning about individual managers’ performance in UK pension funds: The importance of specialization," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 654-667.
    17. Garcia, Maria Teresa Medeiros, 2010. "Efficiency evaluation of the Portuguese pension funds management companies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 259-266, July.
    18. Maria Teresa Medeiros Garcia, 2014. "Management of Pension Funds: the Case of Portugal," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 4(4), pages 792-792.
    19. Jem Tugwell, 2011. "Skill or luck? The role of strategies and scenario analysis as a competitive differentiator for fund management firms," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(4), pages 281-291, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:1:y:2001:i:4:d:10.1057_palgrave.jam.2240025. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.