Recently, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) announced it had finalized the consolidation of Barings’ mutual funds with MassMutual funds onto the MassMutual investments platform. To mark the occasion, PLANSPONSOR sat down with Keith McDonagh, the head of MassMutual’s institutional solutions business, to talk about this and other developments, including the state of competition in the institutional services space and the challenges he is hearing about from brokers, consultants and their institutional investor clients.

At a high level, McDonagh says, the past two years have been challenging for institutional investors, but they have also brought about opportunities to address some long-term financial challenges, especially among employers with active and/or frozen pension plans. Though they have had to contend with substantial volatility, the current funded status of many pensions is higher than it has been for some time, McDonagh says, with many plans in the ballpark of 95% funded. As the end of the fiscal year approaches, for many plan sponsors, this increase in funded status has spurred more discussions on de-risking and end-state objectives.

Echoing comments made by other experts, McDonagh says the early part of 2022 may be defined by inflation statistics and the at-times counterintuitive impact higher inflation can have on corporate pensions.

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