UBS : US PENSION FUND FITNESS TRACKER

Disclosures and methodology

Funding ratio

Funding ratios measure a pension fund's ability to meet future payout obligations to plan participants. The main factors impacting the funding ratio of a typical US defined benefit plan are equity market returns, which grow (or shrink) the asset pool from which plan participants' benefits are paid, and liability returns, which move inversely to interest rates.

Liability indices: Methodology

Pension Protection Act (PPA) liability returns are approximated by the Barclays Capital US Long Credit A-AAA Index. This index broadly reflects the duration and credit characteristics of the PPA discount curve that is used to discount expected pension benefit payments for US defined benefit pension plans.

Asset index: Methodology

UBS Asset Management approximates the return for the 'typical' US defined benefit plan using the reported asset allocation of the UBS Asset Management Pension 500 Database. The series is constructed using the aggregate asset allocation weightings and publicly available benchmark information, with geometrically linked monthly total returns.

Pension Fund Fitness Tracker: Methodology

The US Pension Fund Fitness Tracker is the ratio of the asset index over the liability index. Assuming all other factors remain constant, it combines asset and liability returns, and measures the impact of a 'typical' investment strategy on the funding ratio of a model defined benefit plan in the US due to interest rollup, change in interest rates and typical asset performance, but excludes unique plan factors, such as service cost and benefit payments. The impact of changes in mortality tables on liabilities in 2014 and 2015 was estimated to be +6% and -2%, respectively.

The UBS Asset Management Pension 500 Database

The UBS Asset Management Pension 500 Database is a proprietary database that is based on the analysis of 500 public companies sponsoring large defined benefit plans. The information was extracted from the companies' 10-K statements, and therefore represents generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) information. The study may include figures for companies' nonqualified and foreign plans, both of which are not subject to ERISA. The aggregate asset allocation is based on an equally weighted average of the 500 companies included in the database. The aggregate asset allocation includes equities, fixed income, hedge funds, private equity, real estate and cash.