Special Reports
In-depth reports on investing for our pension fund and asset management readers from our award-winning journalists.
Latest Special Reports
IPE Investor Guide: Digital Assets
For most of the past decade, the digital assets conversation arrived in pension fund boardrooms via the back door. A colleague had flagged a newspaper headline about bitcoin, or a beneficiary had asked an awkward question at an AGM.
Climate transition: Is the EU still serious about decarbonising?
The bloc is embarking on a radical round of housekeeping to ensure its sustainability rules remain business-friendly
Fiduciary assets plateau as UK market matures
UK pension schemes are de-risking through insurance in growing numbers, while many are choosing run-on strategies – and fiduciary managers must adapt
Trends to watch in 2026: As stocks defy gravity, bubble fever speculation grows
Stocks seemed to have defied gravity this year, but the latest Bank of America (BofA) Securities Global Fund Managers survey shows that a record 60% of money managers canvassed believe global equities, including the US, are overvalued.
Net Zero: Front Line Dispatches
The vast majority of countries have missed their deadlines for setting new emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement. last-minute announcements before this year’s Belém COP, however, mean that there is now a critical mass of new nationally determined contributions.
As fiduciary duty evolves, securities litigation becomes a key tool in pension fund governance
Over the past few years, investor class actions have evolved from a niche legal tool into a central part of institutional governance.
The index revolution: From benchmarking to bespoke solutions
Index providers shift their offering as a wholesale revolution of the industry gathers pace
IPE Top 1000 2025: European pensions break €10trn barrier
Europe’s retirement savings pool grew by 6.2% in 2024, well above the 10-year average
IPE Top 500 Asset Managers 2025: Record growth in a winners-take-all asset management market
The world’s asset managers have enjoyed three straight years of robust growth, but a transformative trend is gaining momentum – AUM growth is increasingly concentrated at the top.
India could benefit from global trade disruption
As other nations reel from the ongoing trade tariff uncertainty, Delhi appears relatively insulated from the direct impact of US levies compared with its more export-reliant Asian peers
Impact investing evolves amid strong demand
Private credit is attracting the attention of investors with impact objectives, while strategies in public equities have a clearer framework to lean on
Artificial Intelligence: UK pension funds optimistic but wary as they dip into AI
Trustees are exploring AI but emphasise the importance of understanding risks such as data security and ethical considerations
Pension and investment consultants: Business models are changing
Pension and investment consultants are adjusting business strategies in response to an increasingly complex and volatile investment environment
Fiduciary management: Race for UK mandates intensifies
UK pension schemes with complex and diverse needs are turning to fiduciary management in growing numbers. Who will be the winners in this increasingly competitive sector?
Class actions & investor litigation: Getting the priorities right in pursuit of better corporate behaviour
Greater investor activism and a wave of recent financial scandals has encouraged many European pension funds to become more active.
Prospects for 2025: Pension investors identify risk scenarios
High equity valuations and a possible return of inflation, caused by geopolitical tensions and US policy, have European pension funds worried
ESG: Investors embrace new challenges on 1.5°C climate goal
The world has changed considerably since we first started publishing this annual special report in 2018, not least in that the rise of greenwashing concerns is leading to a phasing-out of terms such as ESG.
Index 2.0: Off-the-shelf or custom indices?
Continuing innovation in the index business leads investors to address a fundamental question – should they buy off-the-shelf products or customise their own?
Top 1000 Pension Funds 2024: Pensions back at a sweet spot
Assets for the leading 1000 European pension funds grew by 8.7% year-on-year, reversing last year’s loss of 6.8%. This brings total assets back up to above their previous high water mark of €9.7trn in 2022’s research exercise. This year’s overall net gain in assets of €775bn is the largest since 2021’s increase of €810bn.
Time to understand India
The country has much to offer investors, with impressive GDP growth, an innovative tech industry and soaring consumer demand
Generation of change: asset managers grapple with AI on both sides of the P&L
Data highlights from IPE Top 500 Asset Managers 2024: Global asset management AUM: €111.4trn ($120trn) | Year-on-year increase of 8.6% on the 2023 total of €102.6trn | Global institutional assets: €36trn (2023: €35.1trn) | European institutional assets €11.9trn (2023: €11.5trn)
Europe’s pension policy roundtable: Challenges for the next Commission
The experts weigh in on the future of the European Union’s pensions policy
Manager selection: Solving the pension liquidity puzzle
Advisers and fiduciary managers are working as hard as ever to meet the liquidity needs of pension funds
Natural capital special report: Getting to grips with the TNFD
More than 100 financial institutions have formally committed to adopting the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Here’s how some of them are getting on so far
Risk transfer special report: Pension liabilities shift to insurers
New players are waiting to enter the UK pension risk transfer market but this will depend on how accommodating Solvency UK will be
Fiduciary management special report: Has the UK peaked?
After years of growth throughout the 2010s, the number of fiduciary mandates has levelled off. Will trustees still opt for fiduciary now that insurance risk transfer is cheaper and consolidator funds have received the green light?
Class actions by European investors on the rise in the name of good governance and fiduciary duty
Deepwater Horizon, Volkswagen (Dieselgate), Wirecard, Silcon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse are recent, high-profile examples of corporate wrong doing resulting in losses for investors. As stewards of retirement savings and guardians of beneficiaries’ interests, it is only natural that pension funds should scrutinise the investments they are making – or outsourcing to asset managers to make – on their members’ behalf. This is a central plank of fiduciary duty.
Prospects special report 2024: CIOs on what awaits investors
Asset management CIOs and strategists answer key questions about investment for the 12 months and beyond
ESG Guide 2023: The future of sustainable finance
With or without the backlash against ESG in the US, big questions have been looming over the sustainable finance industry – like ‘is sustainable finance working?’.
ETFs Guide 2023: Innovation challenges concentration as investors spread their ETF wings
ETFs’ steep upward trajectory continues, driven, as industry participants note, by their low cost, simplicity, and flexibility as an allocation tool. Globally the value of assets invested in ETFs, some $10.7trn (€10trn) at the end of August 2023, is 17.5% higher than at the same point in 2022, according to consultancy ETFGI. In Europe the increase was greater, at 20.8%, but from a much smaller base, with total investment in ETFs now standing at $1.7trn, with the lower take-up still being attributed to less favourable tax treatment.
AI special report: Could investment management be transformed?
While many foresee a variety of roles for artificial intelligence, critics believe it has a limited role in crucial asset management activities
Top 1000 Pension Funds 2023: Europe’s pensions absorb a €646bn loss
Last year saw a net reduction in the asset stock of European pension investment retirement pools of 6.77% over the previous year, according to IPE’s annual study of the leading 1,000 pension funds across the continent, marking a sea change for pensions.
Asia Investment - Special Report
In this month’s special report on Asia, IPE’s private markets editor Lauren Mills analyses why global institutional investors are setting their sights on Asia. The combination of strong fundamentals and a lack of correlation with the European and North American economies make the region’s private assets particularly attractive. Investors are particularly hungry for infrastructure assets as well as the region’s fast-growing digital infrastructure.
IPE Top 500 Asset Managers 2023: Asset management at a pivotal point
Data highlights from IPE Top 500 Asset Managers 2023: 2022 global asset management AUM is €102.6trn | 5.5% reduction on the 2022 total of €108.6trn | Global institutional AUM: €35.1trn | European institutional assets: €11.5trn
Special Report – Outlook: Europe and the world
Inflation may be losing momentum, thanks to vigorous central bank action, but with a recession on the horizon, it is hard to tell whether the next few months and years will see markets turn around and risk assets begin to perform again. For the time being, CIOs argue for selectivity in stock selection and generally agree that bonds have resumed their diversification role. The main article in our Outlook report features the views of influential CIOs and strategists on asset allocation for the next few years.
Briefing – Regulation
In Frankfurt, EIOPA has responded to the European Commission’s call for technical advice in its stocktake on IORP II, the European framework for occupational pensions. EIOPA proposes widening the scope of IORP II in a pivot away from cross-border pensions and towards sustainability. A consultation process is open until 25 May.
Manager selection: UK fiduciary management
Does fiduciary management still stack up as scheme funding improves?
Special Report – Natural capital
Incorporating nature risk into financial analysis remains the - for now elusive - goal for investors, but this is hard given the lack of consensus on what information should be collected and how it should be presented. Such questions are the domain of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), the group founded in 2021. As well as striving for transparency and consistency in data disclosure, asset owners are also keen to deter inflated and exaggerated claims by asset managers on biodiversity impacts.
UK pension risk transfer market set for bumper 2023
Improved pricing and funding levels turned 2022 into a busy year for insurers, with more demand expected in 2023. But can they cope with the higher demand and will pricing remain competitive?
Special Report – DC pensions
Workplace pensions can differentiate themselves by their stewardship and engagement programmes. But effective stewardship is generally the preserve of larger defined benefit players and big investment managers. Now, technology means investors in smaller pooled funds can express their proxy voting preferences, shifting the power away from the managers and towards asset owners.
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