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Performance of personal pension schemes in the UK

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  • Gregory, Alan
  • Tonks, Ian

Abstract

This paper examines the performance of personal pensions (exempt unit trusts) in the UK 1980-2000. Unitised personal pension schemes are a type of mutual fund that is constituted as a contractual savings scheme, whose value can only be accessed at retirement. By studying the performance of these schemes we are able to assess the role of illiquidity in retail savings products. The paper examines those personal pension schemes that invest predominantly in UK equities, and first reports on the growth in personal pension schemes over this twenty-year period. The paper then assesses the performance of these pension funds relative to various asset pricing benchmarks, including a four factor benchmark that allows for momentum in stock returns, and allowing for market timing and conditioning on macroeconomic variables, and finds that average performance is not significantly different from zero. The paper goes on to examine persistence in performance of these pension schemes and identifies negative persistence at short horizons, but at time-intervals of six months to one year finds significant positive persistence, though this positive persistence weakens at longer time intervals.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:24698
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24698/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gavin Brown & Paul Draper & Eddie McKenzie, 1997. "Consistency of UK Pension Fund Investment Performance," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 155-178.
    2. 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.
    3. Blake, David & Lehmann, Bruce N & Timmermann, Allan, 1999. "Asset Allocation Dynamics and Pension Fund Performance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(4), pages 429-461, October.
    4. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    5. Daniel, Kent, et al, 1997. "Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic-Based Benchmarks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1058, July.
    6. Carpenter, Jennifer N. & Lynch, Anthony W., 1999. "Survivorship bias and attrition effects in measures of performance persistence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 337-374, December.
    7. D. E. Allen & M. L. Tan, 1999. "A Test of the Persistence in the Performance of UK Managed Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5‐6), pages 559-593, June.
    8. Coggin, T Daniel & Fabozzi, Frank J & Rahman, Shafiqur, 1993. "The Investment Performance of U.S. Equity Pension Fund Managers: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(3), pages 1039-1055, July.
    9. Hendricks, Darryll & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1993. "Hot Hands in Mutual Funds: Short-Run Persistence of Relative Performance, 1974-1988," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 93-130, March.
    10. Fletcher, Jonathan & Forbes, David, 2002. "An exploration of the persistence of UK unit trust performance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 475-493, December.
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    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. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Maria Teresa Medeiros Garcia & Beatriz Costa, 2020. "Performance of Personal Pension Funds in Portugal," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 259-272, August.
    5. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    pensions; performance measurement; persistence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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