Views from USS

22 July 2021

Investment strategy effectiveness and the 2020 valuation

Reflecting the long-term nature of the pension arrangements of our members, we take a long-term approach to investment strategy. The overall balance of our investments in the defined benefit (DB) section reflects the primary objective of any DB pension: to provide members with a set inflation-linked income for life in retirement, regardless of what happens to the economy in the future.

14 July 2021

How USS is committing more to green energy

In early May, USS announced its first investment in solar energy. Mike Powell, Head of Private Markets, explains why renewable energy is a growing area of focus for investment.

4 May 2021

Ambition to go net zero

Climate change is one of, if not the most significant challenge facing our society today, says David Russell, Head of Responsible Investment at USS. Here he explains what we are doing about it.

1 March 2021

The difference between our expected investment returns and our prudent assumptions

We are currently holding a full valuation to investigate if and how we can expect to have enough money to pay the benefits promised to our members over the coming decades. To the extent that we plan to rely on investment returns to pay our members’ benefits, the process involves trying to predict how financial markets might perform over time.

25 February 2021

Update on some exciting new changes to the Investment Builder

The ability to innovate is one of the key benefits of an internal team and we take this seriously as we strive to create the best possible products for our members.

23 February 2021

USS Investment Management Update - February 2021

Changes made to the our asset allocation before, and during the pandemic, made a positive impact on performance as we continued to build on our liability-matching capability.

4 February 2021

January fixed income and treasury update

While investors may have made the most of the “Biden bounce”, the rapid “V-shaped” economic recovery which has already been priced into many economic models, still seems some way off.

19 January 2021

USS Institutions Meeting 2020

We held our annual Institutions’ Meeting on Thursday 10 December 2020. The ‘virtual’ meeting provided us with an opportunity to update our sponsoring employers on how we’ve performed, the work we are doing to improve the services we provide, and our perspective on how we can deliver on our mission: to work with Higher Education employers to build a secure financial future for our members and their families.

17 December 2020

USS Investment Management update - December 2020

Simon Pilcher, CEO of USS Investment Management, takes a look back on the year and a look forward to 2021.