Click this link to join David Fairs and the Pension PlayPen on Tuesday

For such a decent, mild-mannered and well- qualified individual, David Fairs is an unusually controversial character. As a KPMG partner he worked on innovative and cutting-edge pension policies and developed a reputation for forward looking policies that pushed at the boundaries of what could be done.

He has since become a  bagger of a portfolio of interests – chairing a variety of actuarial and consulting boards and building a non-executive career that includes roles at PASA, Included, Nuffield and Durham University.

He now works for LCP where he describes himself as a

Partner focused on pensions policy, thought leadership, new business acquisition and service delivery. Particular areas of focus on governance, DE&I, financing and investment

But it was at the Pensions Regulator , which he joined in 2018 and left on March last year, that he has been most publicly prominent, launching the DB funding code with some gusto and to a mixed reception

David Fairs

Here seen delivering an early address on the topic , he fronted TPR’s hard line approach which sought to fast-track the bulk of schemes to an end-game that would allow them to wind-up and pass assets and liabilities to insurers. This approach became known on this blog as “running the quietest graveyard”.

That was then, is it now?

The DB funding code, which contained the “fast-track” proposals, was modified over time to reflect dissenting voices that wanted pension schemes to run on and not capitulate to an end-game where insurer’s could dictate the terms of pension fund’s demise and where once productive investment strategies were de-risked to the great expense of sponsoring employer’s P/L and capacity to grow.

Since leaving TPR and joining LCP , Fairs has undergone a change of heart , perhaps encouraged by the miraculous recovery of pension schemes from seemingly bankrupt  to fully funded , following the winding up of quantitative easing, the return of inflation and the bungling of the economy in September 2022.

Posting on linked in, Pension Playpen’s Steve Goddard has announced

We are delighted that LCP’s David Fairs will be giving us a full update on the new DB Funding code which was was laid before parliament on Monday, 29 July 2024.

The new Code sets out TPR’s guidance and expectations on how to comply with the Funding and Investment Strategy requirements.

It will replace the existing DB funding code, introduced in 2014 and will encourage good long-term planning and risk management behaviours.

🔵 What will be the impact on Scheme sponsors & Trustees?
Is this good news?
🟣 Does the Code go far enough?

David is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and joined LCP as a partner in April 2023, having previously been Executive Director for Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice at tPR.

So at 10.30 am on Tuesday 20th August, you will be able to quiz Fairs on just where he stands on the Code today and what impact he thinks it will have on schemes tomorrow.

David has had worse grillings, having survived countless visits to the Work and Pensions Committee and face-offs with politicians bemused by Pension Policy,

Nonetheless , it is brave of him to step into the PlayPen’s den and to submit himself to the barbs of our far from shy interlocutors.

If you are a reader of this blog , you have earned yourself a free place at the table. You can join the meeting at no personal expense by clicking he link below

Click this link to join David Fairs and the Pension PlayPen on Tuesday