U.K. pension funds posted an average return of -10% in 2001, the worst performance in 11 years, according to estimates from The WM Co. U.K. pension funds returned –1.8% in 2000. This is the first consecutive years of negative returns since WM started its survey of U.K. pension fund results in the mid-1970s.
U.K. bonds produced an average return of 3.2% in 2001, compared with -13% for U.K. equities and -16% for overseas equities.