In the case of pension funds, the cover ratio corresponds to the ratio between the effectively available assets and the liabilities on a particular cut-off date. It thus provides information about the percentage by which the liabilities of a pension fund are covered by its assets. With a cover ratio of 100 percent, the pension fund has sufficient financial means to meet all entitlements to benefits at a particular time. However, there is no buffer. The cover ratio would have to be over 100 percent to do that.
In fact, the cover ratio is only a technical figure, because even with a cover ratio of less than 100 percent it will never happen that all insured persons will all retire at the same time, for example. Even so, a high cover ratio demonstrates that a pension fund is financially strong and can meet all its obligations with no difficulty. A pension fund with a high cover ratio also has a higher risk tolerance and can, for example, afford to pursue a more risky investment strategy with greater potential returns, because there are enough funds available to cushion any fluctuations on the financial markets.