New analysis of the country's largest private-sector pensionsshows sponsors' investment strategies are diverging like neverbefore. Russell Investments has published a new review of howpension assets are managed among the 20 sponsors inthe “$20 billion” club, a group coined by Russell in 2011 in aneffort to track trends among the largest pensions.

Bob Collie, chief research strategist at Russell, writes thatwhile uniformity in investment strategy persists among individualretirement savers, non-profits and public pensions, the largestdefined-benefit sponsors are showing signs of more individualizedapproaches.

Much of the new trend is explained by the divergence inreturn-seeking and liability-driven strategies, says Collie. Hecompares Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. pension plans, which have 77% oftheir assets invested in fixed income and just 7% invested inequity, with Johnson & Johnson's worldwide plans, which areinvested 79% in equities and just 21% in fixed income.