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Alternative Market Briefing

Global institutional retirement assets hit $56.6tn in 2021

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Global institutional retirement assets set a new record in 2021, reaching $56.6 trillion by the end of the year in the 22 largest markets, according to a study.

According to the latest figures in the Thinking Ahead Institute's Global Pension Assets Study, this new record follows year-on-year growth of 6.9% in P22 assets in 2021, up from US$52.9 trillion in the previous year - when global pension assets first surpassed the US$50 trillion mark.

Continued growth during 2021 means global pension assets have now almost doubled in the last decade - since standing at US$29.3 trillion in 2011, it said.

Split geographically, such growth has been driven in large part by anglosphere countries. During the same annual period, pension assets have grown in USD terms, by 11.6% in Australia, 8.5% in the US, and 7.7% in the UK. Meanwhile, a 1.1% fall in Japan's pension assets means the UK has overtaken Japan to reclaim the position of the second-largest pensions market.

According to the study, new pensions models are also a factor, with defined contribution (DC) pensions showing strong growth in particular. After surpassing 50% of assets in the seven largest pensions markets for the first time ever in 2020, DC pensions have continued their steady ascendancy throughout 2021, to now top 54%.

Concentration in pensions markets has increased, even as relatively smaller countries have also seen growth in their pension assets. As of the new 2021 data, the......................

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