I know it’s not a story to anyone , but this week , for a few years, I will not be reporting on the Pensions UK LGPS Conference. I guess I would have gone if I’d had a press pass as I have had, but I haven’t this year.
It’s off and running and here is the Pension’s UK plug
Following the spectacular victories of everyone except Conservatives and Labour councillors, this year’s conference will have a new set of delegates. Pensions UK reflects this by publishing a refreshed introduction to the scheme which should be reading for providers of services to the LGPS (a thriving industry for many).
Bud amidst the cheery optimism of Pensions UK , I suggest there is concern that the hegemony of the decades past where the two major parties saw the Liberals as the party of opposition. Opposition now comes in the form of Greens and Reform who may not be quite as amenable.
I think the LGPS is robust. It is well funded – too well funded in places as I explained yesterday.
It is generally well governed, governed so thoroughly that the cost of running the scheme is called into question by those outside it. No stone may be unturned but at what cost? No investment avenue not explored but at what cost of fees? There are breakaways from the pools (Kensington) can show investment track records that are hard to dispute.
But the big question for LGPS is its current cost to cash strapped employers and in particular the councils. What can be said to Birmingham councillors who are governing a city that cannot empty its dustbins? John M Clary’s eviscerating blogs on the demands of employers by LGPS and its actuarial advisers are well read.
So I will continue to watch from a distance. This time last year I had hoped to help with the transfer of DC pots into LGPS (which can be done in a member’s first year). I had hoped for LGPS administrators to compete for the new CDC mandates that would emerge in 2026. This was fanciful on my behalf.
But it is important that the officials of LGPS listen to the voice from outside, especially as those outside last year are inside this. Kicking me out is no bad thing, I have got important things to do now CDC is underway and have lost my interest in an organisation that has lost whatever love it had for me! Nonetheless I wish it luck and progress!
