Money saved in old-style pensions that offer a guaranteed income in retirement has for the first time been eclipsed by newer pensions that do not, despite worries they are poorly designed, weakly governed and leave poorer savers worse off.

Assets in new defined contribution pension funds amounted to just over half of the $36.6tn saved in retirement funds at the end of 2018, according to figures published on February 11 by consultancy Willis Towers Watson.