Pensions - Articles - Hedging comes good as yields fall

The Broadstone Sirius Index – a monitor of how various pension scheme strategies are performing on their journeys to self-sufficiency – posts its latest update.

The Broadstone Sirius Index reports its update for February 2026 with the fully hedged scheme outperforming the half-hedged scheme in the face of falling gilt yields.

The funding level of the fully hedged scheme increased by 1.1 percentage points from 71.8% at the end of January to 72.9% at the end of February. This marks its strongest funding position since September 2022.

The funding level of the 50% hedged scheme fell back slightly from 108.9% at the end of January to 108.7% at the end of February remaining broadly similar to levels seen at the start of the year.

Chris Rice, Head of Trustee Services at Broadstone, commented: "Many defined benefit schemes are in a strong position following increasingly hedged strategies and positive returns on growth assets over the last year or two.

“The instability in the Middle East casts a shadow over investment strategies and outcomes presently. The turbulence has the potential to being a roller coaster ride on financial markets, so schemes and their trustees should make sure they have their investments well managed to protect their funding positions.”