To read the agenda of this year’s Pension UK Annual Conference you might not think that there is any demand to discuss collective pensions (CDC) at all.
Delegates will have to wait till the final hours of a three day conference for a session that is one of three running concurrently.
I must admit I have been a little busy!
“Setting up a whole-of-life CDC scheme … with cost, regulations, scale, and resourcing challenges all adding together to make a massive headache. But the potential benefits of a collective DC arrangement are still attractive. Is there a way it can be delivered more easily? Meet the CDC advocates that think it can”.
I have no idea what can be done to simplify CDC other than to cut corners in getting authorised (which doesn’t sound a very good strategy).
What is for sure is that it is “challengers” who are looking to offer collective pensions and they will not get much of a voice at Pensions UK Conference unless someone speaks up for them. The concurrent meeting above follows the talk by the Pensions Minister which is billed a discussion of the Pension Schemes Act. CDC is not in the Pensions Schemes Act.
It was last legislated for in October 2025 and will be legislated again to allow Retirement CDC to happen in 2029 but right now the authorisation window is open and we can hope for UMES “workplace” pensions to be available to challenge workplace DC Pensions from early next year.
It is indeed the most advanced of the forward looking pension reforms and I am most surprised that it has been tucked away at the back of the Annual Conference “program”.
Were I not fully engaged in getting Pensions Mutual’s pension authorised (which indeed involve all that Pensions UK has identified) , I would have liked to attend. Indeed , I am surprised, there being so little “noise” from potential Proprietors that I am surprised I have not been asked to appear on the scandal.
Who are the challengers?
My understanding is that my friend and long-term enthusiast for CDC , Adrian Boulding wishes to be a “challenger” like Pensions Mutual. We are the challengers and there are also well established organisations that may be talking on the last morning of the Conference.
TPT has said it wants to offer CDC alongside its DC master trust and a yet to be launched Superfund. But apart from that I hear only rumours of a consultancy wishing to be authorised for 2027 and Aon who’ll be ready in 2028 to offer a “workplace” pension inside its master trust. I think it generally expected that Aon’s master trust will scale for 2030 and again for 2035. Employers that I speak to who participate in the Aon DC master trust appear appraised of their future options.
We should remember that had it not been for the last major disruption to the status quo of DC plans (AE’s introduction in stages from 2012) we would not have the DC master trusts we have today. Nest, People’s , Now, Smart and the insurance master trusts all emerged when it became clear that the first Pensions Commission was being taken seriously.
So I hope that in Pension UK Conferences to come, Pensions UK will take what happened at Royal Mail and what has happened since , will lead to a new kind of collective Pension.
For the moment, CDC is knocking on the Pension UK door. While waiting, I will continue to promote its great Annual Conference , which would be even greater if it embraced collective pensions!
Why we cannot yet be members of Pensions UK.
The challenging new Proprietors of CDC cannot be members of Pensions UK. As we have yet to be authorised, we are yet to launch so I cannot go as “members”. That I am sure will change!
But to run a session on how schemes like us are going about setting up is topical. It is our intention to be as important to UK pensions as DC Master Trusts are today.
We do not wish to take over, we want to offer an alternative as our new Director of Private Pensions said on social media. We want to offer Collective Pensions as the original NAPF was founded to promote!
