Pension funds and other retirement funds shouldn't even be invested in equities, but because morons have embraced globalism (falsely masquerading as free trade), we have policies like zirp to make tbonds and other "saving" vehicles worthless along with QE to cause massive price inflation in equities while underlying values remain flat or in decline. Selling puts is just one way to be long a stock, and it comes along with the benefit of theta instead of margin interest costs. Drawbacks are limited upside and reduced delta...I pity the fools who are relying on pensions managed by 3rd parties.