The Broadstone Sirius Index – a monitor of how various pension scheme strategies are performing on their journeys to low dependency – posts its latest update.
The Broadstone Sirius Index has published its October tracking for a ‘growth focused’ and a more conservative ‘matching focused’ investment strategy against a low dependency basis. Both schemes started 90.0% funded at the start of 2026.
The latest Broadstone Sirius Index found that funding levels for both schemes fell over the month with the ‘growth focused’ scheme seeing a 1.5 percentage point decrease and a 0.5 percentage point deterioration was observed for the ‘matching focused’ scheme.
It means that the ‘growth focused’ scheme fell from 94.0% funded to 92.5% through the course of October, while the ‘matching focused’ scheme funding declined from 89.2% to 88.7% over the same period.
The falling gilt yield over the month caused liabilities to rise, most of which was offset by assets rising for the matching focused scheme but only partially offset in the growth focused scheme. Growth assets fell slightly, negatively impacting both schemes’ funding positions but as expected, the growth focused scheme to a greater extent.
Christopher Rice, Head of Trustee Services, Broadstone, commented: “October unexpectedly saw gilt yields fall slightly, which was particularly surprising given the concerns in the lead up to the budget. This would have negatively impacted schemes that had not fully hedged interest rate risk.
“Declining growth markets also would not have helped the funding positions of schemes holding equities and similar assets.
“Smoothing out volatility during September, and protecting against gilt yield falls in October have demonstrated the benefits of hedging and many schemes that have derisked will have seen relatively stable funding positions over 2026.”
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