Where we invest

See where your contributions go

We invest contributions with long term goals in mind so that we can pay pensions long into the future. We have £77.9bn in assets across the Retirement Income Builder – the defined benefit (DB) part that provides a guaranteed income in retirement – and the Investment Builder – the defined contribution (DC) part that allows you to save more towards your future in your own savings pot.

We invest in both private and public markets in a whole range of different assets across the world. By actively investing in such a diverse way, we have an investment portfolio that aims to reduce risk and be more resilient both to short-term market movements and long-term trends. It also provides more opportunities to generate better returns to help towards your financial future.

Closer to home, around 50% of our investments are right here in the UK.

Both the Retirement Income Builder and Investment Builder are invested in much the same way. One difference is that our DC investments are mostly managed by external investment managers, whereas our DB investments are mostly managed internally by USS Investment Management Limited, or USSIM, our in-house investment manager. They’re responsible for managing between 70% and 80% of our DB investments themselves.

Our investments by assets

Our global Retirement Income Builder (DB) investments are split across three main categories – growth, credit and liability matching:

1. Public credit includes, among others, EU and US government bonds.
2. We use leverage to efficiently manage the inflation and interest rate risks in our pension liabilities, as well as using it in other asset classes, such as growth assets (e.g. equities). This figure measures the degree to which our total investment exposure exceeds the value of our net assets.

Our Investment Builder assets in the USS Growth Fund are also split across three main categories – growth, credit, and UK government bonds. As of 31 March 2024, most DC assets were invested in the USS Growth Fund (£1.9bn):

1. Public credit includes EU and US government bonds.

For more detail, and a breakdown of where we invest for the rest of our Investment Builder funds, see our Quarterly Investment Reports.

Our investments by geography

1. Commodities fall under global in the geographical breakdown.