Views from USS

11 December 2019

USS Institutions' Meeting 2019

We held our annual Institutions’ Meeting on 4 December. The meeting provides us with an opportunity to formally 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.

4 September 2019

Hindsight 20/20

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 – and this is particularly salient when reviewing investment performance. The “right” investment decisions are revealed and obvious in retrospect, judged over chosen time intervals. But decisions must be made in prospect, based on expectations, probabilities and risk tolerances.

31 July 2019

Protecting all that is good about USS

USS plays a key role in supporting the continued success of a sector that is of vital importance to the UK economy.

26 July 2019

First impressions

When I was offered the role of Chief Pensions Officer at USS, the high calibre of its people and its commitment to quality and value really appealed to me. Recently, I’ve been reflecting on if and how my initial expectations, shaped from the outside looking in, have been met or changed over the course of my first 100 days in post.

17 April 2019

Working at USS

What makes USS such a great place to work? We asked our colleagues to share their thoughts.

28 March 2019

From university to USS

As the principal pension scheme for some of the country’s leading higher education institutions, we asked our colleagues to share their memories of student life and their journey to USS – where they look after the retirements of the people who taught them.

4 March 2019

An alternative approach to funding pensions?

Financial markets have been analogous to Spain’s world famous Pamplona bull run over most of the past decade, with equities leading the charge. Born out of the financial crisis, quantitative easing and the search for real returns have engendered an asset price boom

28 February 2019

Protecting the promises made to members

Every three years, the Trustee must make judgements about how various expectations and risks will play out over the long-term and the short-term that could influence the scheme’s ability to pay members’ benefits. It must also review whether recent experience has met with previous expectations, and respond accordingly.

6 April 2018

Why a US court case about a Brazilian oil company might matter to your pension

Earlier this year we learned that an historic settlement had been reached in a large and long-running legal case. The total value of the settlement is USD 3 billion (ie. USD 3,000,000,000). This is a genuinely historic settlement for a case of this kind – it’s the largest securities/investments class action settlement in over a decade, and is the largest settlement ever in a class action involving a non-US issuer (ie. Petrobras). It is the fifth largest class action settlement ever in the US.

Views from USS

Recent views from USS

USS Institutions' Meeting 2019

Hindsight 20/20

Protecting all that is good about USS

First impressions

Working at USS

From university to USS

An alternative approach to funding pensions?

Protecting the promises made to members

Why a US court case about a Brazilian oil company might matter to your pension