Virus contingency plans worked well for public plans – survey

A survey of U.S. public pension fund CEOs and executive directors found that all 34 systems had business contingency plans in place that "generally worked well" when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in February, resulting in "very few ... significant problems," according to data released Monday by Funston Advisory Services, a governance consulting firm.

Fully 90% of the funds surveyed in the second half of July said they shifted to virtual board meetings mostly through video conferencing, although some conducted meetings by conference calls or a combination of telephone and video conferencing.

That said, 64% of pension fund CEOs/EDs said the existing contingency plan worked "very well' with minimal difficulties for virtual board meetings. That compares with 94% of CEOs who said existing contingency plans worked well for general administration, 88% for benefits administration; investment department, 86%; external communications, 82%; information technology, 76%; and employee communication, 73%.

In the report, Funston said many respondents expect to continue virtual board and committee meetings, most likely via a combination of phone and video conferencing, though 44% said it was "too soon to tell" how future meetings would be conducted.

As for investments, 50% of the plan officials surveyed said their teams have been making "tactical adjustments" in some asset classes; 38% said the board had reviewed the plan's asset allocation without making changes; and 24% said their fund accelerated some new investments under consideration before the pandemic outbreak while 12% said they delayed new investments which had been under review.