Investment Themes
Defined contribution - The Future Book
Edition six – The DC Future Book
- Aggregate DC assets have grown from £430 billion to £471 billion and the median DC pot size stands at £9,600.
- Aggregate combined employee and employer contribution rates have increased from 4.5% to 7%.
- 10.3 million employees had been auto enrolled by 1.7 million employers. This is nearly twice as many employees as those recorded in 2015 (5.4 million).
- The average proportion of actively managed assets has ranged between 76% – 89% for Stakeholder Pensions and Group Personal Pensions, and between 54% – 57% for Master Trusts.
Lauren Wilkinson, Senior Policy Researcher at the Pensions Policy Institute, said:
“This year’s edition of the DC Future Book shows a continuation of positive trends associated with Automatic Enrolment. A further 2 million employees have been automatically enrolled compared to the same time last year and another 159,000 re-enrolled, while average contribution rates have also increased. Trends in access to DC savings have also continued, with most pots fully withdrawn, but a greater amount of money invested in drawdown products than was either fully withdrawn or used to purchase annuities. It will be crucial over the next year, and over the longer-term, to monitor how these trends evolve in response to the current Covid-19 pandemic.”
Nick Ring, CEO, EMEA at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, commented:
“We have been proud sponsors of the DC Future Book since its inaugural publication. To say that much has happened over the last 12 months is an understatement. The global Covid-19 pandemic has been complex to understand and navigate and has come at considerable human and economic cost. Against this backdrop it is encouraging to see continued growth in UK DC pensions assets, but we are not out of the woods yet.
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