SEI: More Pension Plans Using Alternative Assets - in Moderation

More U.S. pension plans seem to be using some alternative investments, but fewer plans seem to be using alternative investments a lot.

SEI Investments Company, Oaks, Pa. (Nasdaq:SEIC), has included statistics on plan alternative investment allocations in a summary of results from a recent survey of 106 pension plan executives. About 49% of the survey participants oversee more than $300 million in assets.

The percentage of participants at all plans who said the plans have some assets in alternative investment such as hedge funds, real estate or commodities has increased to 78% this year, from 65% in 2010 and from 51% in 2008.

Plans with more than $300 million in assets are even more likely to have some alternative investment assets.