While big moves in financial markets over the past several years have done serious damage to pension funding, most sponsors of defined-benefit pension plans are unable to respond to major market moves in a timely manner, a recent survey shows.

A poll of 124 corporate, public and not-for-profit plan sponsors by HR consultancy Mercer found that just 21% of plan sponsors say they can execute an investment decision in less than a month. The majority (55%) say it takes them from one to three months to make a change to their asset allocation or shift investment managers, while 18% take from three to six months to make such changes and 6% can take as long as a year.

Kim Plummer, Mercer's U.S. leader for implemented consulting, says that the timing might reflect plan sponsors' wariness given the increased complexity they're facing. "The risk of making a mistake is seen as greater now, given increased regulations and the impact of decisions on plan financials as well as company financials," Plummer says. "What I've seen is a more cautious approach to making decisions in these committee settings."