Yesterday SG Pensions hosted a  day in Stationers Hall by St Pauls in the City.

It was a success , bringing together the sponsors – primarily fund managers investing UK DB pensions and insurers – transferring liabilities to annuities.

What no-one had expected, but rather dominated the event was a short speech and a powerful Q&A from the union leader Terry Pullinger, his topic – the future of pensions for ordinary people.

I captured six minutes of him speaking from the audience, I hope it explains why the future of British pensions has to be driven by the needs of many people and not by finance, important as finance must be in enabling pensions to happen.

I will post it separately.

The key to the debating was a simple analogy from Adam Baker of BlackRock who had likened the progress of UK DB pensions to vehicles travelling north up the same road, at the junction , some make their way west to Manchester and some east to Leeds. The Manchester traffic were running on and those being bought out by insurers continued up the MI.

There were many comments throughout the day about whether there were other destinations, Ian McRae of Jaguar Land Rover repositioned the end points as Glasgow and Edinburgh – a little more inclusive (and emotive for me fresh from a train trip from the edge of the Isle of Skye).

My question was for the future of superfunds, which so far have been a “bridge to buy-out”. I likened Clara to a slow trip to Leeds, it’s aim to get companies without means to buy-out now , to buy out in future. There are others I know who want to to run superfunds that do not head east but stay west, stay open longer and with more ambitious strategies for members and for the growth of assets under management.

There followed a powerful contributions from Manchester -Peter Cameron Brown, speaking on behalf of UKAS (commentary from SG)

“Shared Ambition and the DB Non-Endgame.”

Peter is giving a fascinating look into the UK’s only operational Shared Ambition pension model — an innovative average-salary arrangement with discretionary benefits and dynamic inflation protection.

He explains how Shared Ambition flips the traditional DB narrative:
• Surplus becomes a strategic asset, not something to offload via buyout or risk transfer
• As surpluses grow, benefits can rise — and increases become part of members’ guaranteed pensions
• UKAS today sits at 170% funded (TP) and 136% (solvency), having delivered 10% revaluations in both 2024 and 2025
• The model challenges the idea that schemes must wind up before corporate transactions

Peter positions Shared Ambition as a flexible, future-focused alternative to both buyout and run-on, enabling trustees and sponsors to collaborate, enhance member benefits, and directly support the organisation’s goals.

Rothesay with Sammy Cooper- Smith stand out for the insurers and Simon True, speaking for all that has emerged so far as a superfund – Clara.

The roundtable that I was on ,discussing between ourselves the merits of the various journeys was trumped by Pullinger who followed. So long as we confine debate to finance, we miss what people clearly are missing and which Pullinger understands, the security of a regular income for as long as it is needed.

The setting of the day and its pacing was very good, it was well chaired by Mark Hedges of Nationwide and the panels worked not least through the moderation of Charlotte Moore.

There was an emotive moment as we talked with each other after the Conference. Stephen Glover it turned out was 70 and was presented with a cake by his staff. He should speak at the next event on longevity.