All debate aside about how well prepared people are forretirement, pension funds are racking up some impressivetotals.
|In fact, the 300 largest pension funds globally total nearly $15trillion, up by over 6 percent in 2013, according to research fromTowers Watson.
|Broken down by region, the most impressive growth was not in theU.S. Instead, Latin American and African funds had the highestfive-year combined compound growth rate, increasing more than 16percent.
|Europe came next, with a 12 percent rate of growth. NorthAmerica acquitted itself with only 6 percent, leaving only theAsia/Pacific region to trail by a single percentage point at 5percent.
|If North America as a whole didn't see a huge growth rate, theU.S. by itself did account for the largest share of pension fundassets, 36 percent.
|Thanks to its Government Pension Investment Fund, Japan held thesecond-largest market share at about 13 percent. That fund is atthe top of the size rankings globally, with assets of about $1.2trillion. It's been the largest fund in the world for the past 10years.
|“Quantitative easing (QE) and easy monetary conditions haveprovided an unexpected tailwind for equity markets for the lastfive years or so, which continued strongly in 2013,” said ChrisFord, global head of investment at Towers Watson. “This clearlyhelped many funds given their high allocation to equities.”
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