Irish master trust assets grew by 17 per cent in 2025, while investment returns continued to diverge among providers, with differences now large enough to materially affect members' retirement outcomes, according to LCP Ireland.

The LCP Ireland Master Trust Survey 2026 revealed that average investment returns were around 9 per cent for members more than 20 years from retirement and approximately 5 per cent for those approaching retirement.

However, LCP Ireland said the gap between the strongest and weakest performers for members in the growth phase has widened to around 8 percentage points, as providers adopt increasingly different approaches to asset allocation, risk exposure and the timing of de-risking.

The consultancy said these differences are becoming increasingly significant for savers.

Based on a typical member starting with a €30,000 pension pot, median earnings, a 10 per cent contribution rate and 1 per cent annual charges, the strongest-performing master trusts would have generated around €10,000 more over the past five years than the weakest-performing providers, with the gap expected to compound over a working lifetime.

While higher allocations to growth assets have driven stronger recent returns, LCP Ireland noted that more conservative approaches could prove more resilient if geopolitical uncertainty persists.

Corporate master trusts now account for more than €34bn of Ireland’s defined contribution (DC) market, reflecting strong growth in recent years, as the wider DC market reached €79bn in total assets by the end of 2025, according to Central Bank of Ireland data.

Master trusts continued to expand their membership base during 2025, with membership growth of 25 per cent. The largest employer within a master trust had assets of €940m, while the average employer size was €5m.

Further growth and consolidation of the master trust market is expected, as rising regulatory expectations and governance requirements place increasing pressure on smaller standalone DC arrangements.

LCP said this is likely to drive greater concentration within the €41bn standalone DC market, with fewer, larger master trusts expected to benefit from their scale, operational capability and governance frameworks as employers assess pension providers.

Alongside this growth, LCP said providers are continuing to evolve their propositions, with increased use of data analytics to support more targeted member communications, enhancements to digital platforms and retirement planning tools, and ongoing refinement of investment offerings.

Providers have also continued to strengthen governance and risk frameworks as regulatory expectations increase.

---