Influence of the sponsor’s financial situation on the allocation of pension plan assets

Abstract

The objective was to investigate the factors related to the financial situation of sponsors that can be associated with the decision to allocate the assets of the defined benefit plans of Brazilian closed supplementary pension entities in the annual period from 2013 to 2019. Previous research has studied the sponsor’s financial situation and the allocation of resources by segment type, but there is a gap in relation to portfolio composition in pension plans where there is no compulsory adherence to insurance. The relevance of this research lies in identifying the factors related to the sponsor’s financial situation that may be associated with the resources allocation decision in order to understand what may jeopardize the future payment of benefits. This research contributes to the discussion on the relationship between the portfolio of pension plans and the financial situation of the sponsor; and, indirectly, to the debate on issues related to withdrawal of sponsorship, migration between defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and the acquisition of insurance to cover the payment of future benefits. A total of 134 benefit plans and their respective sponsors were analyzed over a seven-year period. Allocation was divided into decision categories according to portfolio composition, and the statistical technique of multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The results show that the level of funding, the degree of solvency, the size of the company and financial leverage, as well as factors such as past profitability, financial maturity and actuarial solvency, are aspects of the sponsor’s financial situation that may influence the allocation decision and contribute to the advancement of research on the relationship between pension fund portfolio composition and the sponsor’s financial situation.