The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered, annuity rates have plunged and uncertainty has ruled the roost. There's no sign of things improving any time soon, either, as the eurozone and the UK economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth, especially if you keep the shares within a tax-efficient ISA or SIPP.

It's no coincidence that the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffett, prefers such companies, and recently invested in a large FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) (UKX) company that fits the bill perfectly (you can find full details in this free report).

In this series, I'm tracking down the UK large caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund. I'm going to kick off the series with a look at SSE (Frankfurt: A0RFBG - news) , the UK's third-largest electricity utility and a share that's a big favourite of income investors, thanks to its superb dividend record.

Defensive performer

Utility shares are traditionally 'defensive' shares -- shares that are popular during times of economic volatility, such as we have seen in the last few years. SSE has benefited from this defensive bias and from the attraction its dividend policy holds for long-term investors looking for a reliable income. As a result, it has massively outperformed the FTSE 100 over the last 10 years:

If you are building up a retirement portfolio, total return is a useful metric for measuring the performance of your stock, as it captures the effects of share price changes and reinvested dividends. These two ingredients combined are what make it possible for equity portfolios to regularly outperform cash and bonds over the long term.

The trailing 10-year average total return highlights just how valuable SSE's stability and strong dividend performance is for retirement investors. Despite SSE getting left behind in the rebound rally of 2009, it didn't crash in 2011 and its trailing total return over the last 10 years is double that of the FTSE 100.

What's the score?

To help me pinpoint suitable investments, I like to score companies on key financial metrics that highlight the characteristics I look for in a retirement share. Let's see how SSE shapes up:

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Is SSE The Ultimate Retirement Share?