An end to the beginning

It is axiomatic that managing longevity risk is a long-term affair. Assuming that a one-year increase in life expectancy adds 3% to a pension scheme's liabilities it would take an increase of 10 years in a 12-month period to come close to the hit schemes' funding ratios experienced in 2008 when both equity values and discount rates plunged off a cliff.

And the possibility of an improvement on that scale occurring so quickly is infinitely more remote than a repeat of the recent financial crisis,