Almost 60% of a sample of UK pension fund managers polled by investment consultant Watson Wyatt have implemented or considered strategies to offset the risk that medical advances will lead to longer lives for their pensioners.

A quarter of the 70 finance, treasury and pensions executives surveyed said they had put in place methods of dealing with the mortality risk, and a further 25% said they were considering it, while 8% of schemes said they were looking at divesting their pension schemes entirely, for example through an insurance buyout.