A stronger dollar made U.S. funds the standout performers in Pensions & Investments and Willis Towers Watson PLC's Thinking Ahead Institute's latest tally of the world's 300 largest retirement funds, and made itself felt across a range of key survey results.
For example, in prior surveys, bigger retirement funds consistently outperformed smaller funds. And for the five years ended Dec. 31, the 20 biggest retirement funds had annualized gains of 8.8%, ahead of the broader 300's 8.5% gains.
But with currency movements erasing all but a tiny portion of the local currency gains the survey's biggest retirement fund, Japan's $1.7 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, reported last year — together with those of the country's $248.6 billion Pension Fund Association for Local Government Officials, which slipped to 14th place from 13th place on the back of a 0.2% gain — the world's 20 largest retirement plans saw their assets rise only 6.6% for the 12-month period, well below the top 300's 8.9% gain.
The same dynamic impacted regional totals, with Asia-Pacific funds seeing their share of the top 20's $9.68 trillion in assets drop to 41% from 43.7%, amid a 0.7% decline in their combined assets. The share of European funds fell to 26.5% from 28.4%, with their combined assets dipping 0.6% from the year before. U.S. funds' share of top 20 assets, by contrast, jumped to 26.1% in 2021 from 21.7% the year before, on the back of their 28.5% surge in combined assets.
The stronger dollar impacted medium-term regional results for the top 300 retirement funds as well. For the five years ended Dec. 31, annualized gains for that broader group's North American-based funds came to 9.2%, outpacing European and Asia-Pacific-based funds with 8.3% and 8%, respectively — a reversal from the prior year's rolling five-year results, when Asia-Pacific funds bested North American funds 9.9% to 7%.
The latest survey showed North America continuing to boast the largest pool of retirement assets, with a 45.6% share of the top 300's total last year, up from 41.7% the year before. Asia-Pacific funds dropped to 25.5% from 27.5%, while European funds fell to 25.9% from 27.5%.
