Who,d have thunk it #PLSAannual19 pic.twitter.com/knsWf49DYg
— Pension Plowman (@henryhtapper) October 16, 2019
I’d come expecting what I’d left behind in 2005, a diet of DB . By the end of
day one I’ve only been to one session aimed at institutional investors and that was on lifetime mortgages, something I’ll be taking a keen interest in a few years when I fail to pay off my interest only loan from HSBC.
Instead I’ve heard from John Roe and Emma Douglas on what’s happening in DC and how LGIM are diversifying defaults with illiquid assets. I’ve heard from Helen Dean and others on how workplace pensions are developing and how they’ll interact with the dashboard. I’ve heard from Steph McGovern on how pensions might become interesting to ordinary people and Nigel Wilson (CEO of L&G) on how pensions could power Britain’s economy in a post Brexit world.
In short I’ve had a good and interesting time and it’s hardly felt like the PLSA at all. Infact I’ll go further than that and suggest that if I have another day as good as this, I might like starting to like the PLSA again.
I sat with the Darlington girls from RPMI through the afternoon. Dean, Wilson and McGovern talked in a strange tongue of places like Redcar , Sunderland , Middlesborough and of course Newcastle. Helen Dean is Vera glammed up and she sat beside me for Steph’s session. I have never felt so utterly overwhelmed by female emotional intelligence and what with the Darlington girls , I felt proper put in my place!
Having done time in a field hotel in Hampshire earlier in the week, I felt divested of the entitlement that befell me and invested with a freedom that comes from people saying what they think and putting people not profit first. Thank goodness for that.
I will be reporting more on the various sessions tomorrow morning but this interim report is by way of renewing my press pass for tomorrow. Sadly Guy Opperman is being kept in Westminster for voting purposes and won’t be delivering the keynote. Perhaps I can run a book on who should do the session instead. On the basis of today we should get Gazza along.
I am writing from the press room at the conference surrounded by real journalists like Maggie and john and I feel really priviledged. If you don’t get my credentials – here they are again!
Who,d have thunk it #PLSAannual19 pic.twitter.com/knsWf49DYg
— Pension Plowman (@henryhtapper) October 16, 2019
