Here’s yesterday’s Pension PlayPen’s Coffee Morning – an ardent discussion on IHT and Pensions.
Here is the video to go with it
Click the disclaimer to watch the slides live or download the slides from this link.
Yeovil’s shocking performance puts me in mind of relegation
Last night I went down to Woking with my son to watch my side “Yeovil Town” play one of the worst games I’ve ever seen them play. I am glad they got the rollicking they did from their manager.
“We deserved to be losing at half time…” 🎙️
Billy Rowley spoke with BBC’s Josh Perkins following this evening’s 1-0 defeat against Woking in the Enterprise National League. #YTFC 💚 pic.twitter.com/ximv0jBpMK
— Yeovil Town FC (@YTFC) March 17, 2026
436 commited fans turn up for Yeovil Town. Shame 18 players cannot do the same.
📰| Matchday Round-Up – Woking 1 Yeovil Town 0
Rowley calls for ‘passion’ from players: https://t.co/xDIW8khSK6
Match Report: https://t.co/cPuxMPNvB3
Man of the Match Voting: https://t.co/47Rlt2r3UC#YTFC
— Gloverscast 🎙⚽️💚 (@gloverscast) March 18, 2026
This is a club with a great past, a great stadium and great support. It is time that it got its act together or it is heading for National League South (again).
We have become too prudent with our long term money
This is the problem we have. We are a nation that has de-risked and see that as prudent.
I do not want to criticise “individuals”, they have good advocates in Martin Lewis and others, and are right to be prudent when the world is full of predation.
But I wonder if individuals are best off taking decisions on their own , for themselves.
We used to have collective investment that helped out people as varied as miners and postal workers. Only those in the public sector get collective workplace pensions (ok I miss out Royal Mail , USS, Railpen and a few more) but my point is simple.
Left to our own devices, we seek to be prudent and de-risk our finances to a point we have no chance to benefit from the growth of the nation and of the organisations that drive that growth.
That’s not what money in a cash account is good at doing.
We grab our invested funds as soon as we can and cash them out, swapping growth for de-risked prudent cash. Except it’s not prudent or risk-free. That’s because to meet our needs in later life we need our money to grow to beat inflation and last as long as we do!
Let’s not blame individuals for being over-prudent. Instead let’s ask how we can make it easier for us all to invest for growth by encouraging each other to go for growth.
Do we need VFM reports to consolidate small DC schemes?
The Pensions Regulator lays out what we have left of DC Occupational Pension Schemes
The TPR’s take on its work
Brighton seems pretty content with the state of our workplace pension market , for private DC schemes it looks like the end of the road unless you’re a commercial master trust. Recently our largest DC schemes, Lloyds Banking Group’s “Your Tomorrow” DC scheme said it had no tomorrow and was to be consolidated by the Scottish Widows Master Trust. That is not yet in TPR’s numbers as it’s still in consultation but if it is too small , then how many single sponsored DC schemes will be left by the end of the decade.
Here are the numbers from the TPR
- DC scheme numbers fell by 15% to 790 in 2025.
- Assets increased by 22%, rising from £205 billion to £249 billion.
- Schemes that do not deliver value for savers should consolidate out the market, TPR urges.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is calling on DC trustees to review if their scheme presents value for savers, as the shift towards a market of fewer, larger schemes continues, driven by a decline in the number of smaller DC schemes.
TPR’s 2025 DC landscape report published today, shows the number of DC schemes has decreased by 15% to 790 in 2025 – consistent with 2024’s decline when the number of schemes fell below 1,000 for the first time. The decrease in the number of schemes is primarily driven by those with fewer than 5,000 memberships exiting the market.
At the same time, assets have continued to grow – from £205 billion in 2024 to £249 billion in 2025 – an increase of 22%, while memberships are up by 7% on last year.
Master trusts account for the majority of DC members, holding 30.1 million memberships (92%) and £208 billion in assets (83%).
Richard Knox, TPR’s Executive Director, Strategy, Policy and Analysis, said:
“People rightly expect to receive value from their hard-earned retirement savings. As we move towards a market of fewer larger schemes, master trusts now dominate. We believe that larger schemes are better placed to deliver value for money, including stronger investment returns and better service.
“The current Pension Schemes Bill will speed up market dynamics.
“In the new pensions world, we urge pension trustees of smaller schemes, in particular, to review their scheme today. Those that cannot match the stronger performers should consolidate out of the market and transfer savers to a better value scheme.”
My favorite Brighton actuary has this to say
The annual TPR DC scheme data publication is out. Nothing surprising. But does confirm the rapid consolidation (down by 15% as last year) and is now 730 if you exclude those winding up and micros.
And the data are in a sense out of date – up to date as far as the TPR database is concerned but this is as at the most recent scheme relevant date. So I expect the actual current number is closer to 600.
And it includes the Mastertrusts. (Very annoying they are shown separately everywhere). So we are well on the way to only have a few D.C. non MT non micro schemes.
What a palaver asking the Chairs to do so much. And the dashboard.
And VFM ha ha.
VFM- ha ha!
Assuming your view is that VFM is just performance tabling then Cap Data has some interesting things to say (though you have to pay to find out what happens for those close to retirement.
The closest we have to a VFM assessment of the DC market is Corporate Adviser’s “CapData”. It has recently been published and it tells us that there is very little correspondence between size and the amount of money you get from your DC workplace “pension” , oops “pot”.
SEI tops CAPAdata chart, highlighting gulf between top and bottom performers ahead of VFM metrics
The table ought to show the biggest at the top, as it happens WTW’s huge Lifesight is near the top but at the bottom are L&G and Nest (even huger)
You might say that consultants are winners on performance but Mercer’s performance stinks. Infact, it’s hard to tally anything with anything. Here’s the VFM performance table that people actually use (rather than TPR and FCA’s versions which are under consultation.
Total return – Younger saver
|
CAPA – Corporate Adviser Pensions Average |
56.3%
|
|
Aegon – Aegon MT – BlackRock Lifepath Flexi |
69.9% (+13.6%) |
|
Aegon – Aegon Workplace Default (ARC) – GPP |
43.8% (-12.5%) |
|
Aon – Managed Core Retirement Pathways |
76.1% (+19.8%) |
|
Aviva – My Future Focus Universal strategy |
48.3% (-8%) |
|
Fidelity – FutureWise |
69.3% (+13%) |
|
Hargreaves Lansdown – HL Growth Fund |
46.9% (-9.3%) |
|
Legal & General – Lifetime Advantage / Multi Asset Fund |
30.8% (-25.5%) |
|
Legal & General – Target Date Fund |
46.5% (-9.8%) |
|
LifeSight (WTW) – Medium Risk Drawdown |
87.6% (+31.3%) |
|
Mercer – SmartPath Targeting Drawdown |
37.5% (-18.8%) |
|
NatWest Cushon – Sustainable Investment Strategy |
54.1% (-2.2%) |
|
Nest – Retirement Date Fund |
48.9% (-7.4%) |
|
Now: Pensions – now: growth fund & now: retirement countdown fund |
40% (-16.2%) |
|
Penfold – Standard Lifetime plan |
Data not available |
|
Royal London – Balanced Lifestyle Strategy (Drawdown) (GPP) |
57.4% (+1.1%) |
|
Scottish Widows – PIA Balanced (Targeting Flexible Access) (MT&GPP) |
55.1% (-1.2%) |
|
SEI – Flexi default (drawdown) |
94.9% (+38.7%) |
|
Smart Pension – Smart Sustainable Growth Fund |
56.2% (-0%) |
|
Standard Life – Sustainable Multi Asset (AP) Universal SLP |
47.2% (-9%) |
|
The Lewis Workplace Pension Trust – TLWPT (The Lewis Workplace Pension Trust) |
65% (+8.7%) |
|
The People’s Pension – The People’s Pension Balanced Profile |
49.6% (-6.6%) |
|
TPT Retirement Solutions – TPT Target Date Fund |
68.8% (+12.6%) |
VFM performance tables are useful for employers in working out how big “pots” are but they don’t tell employers or regulators the value of consolidating into pensions.
Are what were our “pensions” now to be traded as distressed assets?
I am sorry to continue a series of articles that report on the pending failure of the private equity firm in America but I must. These firms have set their eyes on our private DB legacy and will buy it out through the insurers they now own.
You can read this article in the FT for free on this link.
The private capital industry’s problems are far worse than Wall Street has acknowledged, as traditional metrics obscure weaknesses in the leveraged buyout market, according to a top credit hedge fund.
So starts Amelia Pollard’s article on Monday (16th).
A “substantial portion” of the private equity industry is already “stressed or distressed”, said Tony Yoseloff, managing partner and chief investment officer at credit hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management.
The hedge fund argues excessive leverage, weak cash flows and loose debt contracts have converged to create a ripe environment for corporate defaults.
How do we feel if our pensions are traded in a secondary market of distressed assets being sold by distressed private equity firms?
“You’re not looking at a problem five years from now, you’re looking at a problem that exists today.”
The hedge fund argues excessive leverage, weak cash flows and loose debt contracts have converged to create a ripe environment for corporate defaults.
Is this what we mean by “gilt edged buy out”? We should not suppose that when an insurer buys out our pensions, it does not try to make money on our money.
So far we have looked at the buy-out market in DB pensions as safe as the Bank of England who regulates the market through the PRA, but is the PRA in control of what happens when money is bulked off to Bermuda and used to provide private credit through firms we read about but have no knowledge of. The likes of Blue Owl are not known in Britain but they are the problem that is frightening the US retail market.
Private equity has gone to extreme lengths to generate returns even as firms have struggled to exit investments, turning to secondary fund sales and continuation funds to make distributions to investors.
The industry’s proliferation of roll-ups of mom-and-pop businesses like car washes and insurance brokerage firms has also had mixed results. These groups had a record backlog of almost $4tn in unsold investments last year, even as dealmaking began to make a comeback, according to a recent report from consultancy Bain & Company.
I suggest there is a generation of young people who were not in the market in 2007 when we last had a looming crisis heading our way from the United States by way of financing.
I remember how it began and it feels like it now. Back in those days, the sitting duck was housing, today it is pensions. Either way we are walking into a problem because the clever people who advise and practice pension buy-outs do not consider what is happening to the money that has been put aside to pay pensions in the UK.
IHT on Pensions…today (Tuesday) 10.30 – entry here
 |
Coffee Morning – IHT on Pensions…REALLY!!! CPD included
Type – Teams Online
When – Tuesday 17th March at 10:30am
You are cordially invited to attend our next Coffee Morning. At this event we are delighted that Mark Plewes from WBR Group will be presenting his thoughts on the change in IHT for the Pensions landscape.
He will give us his thinking of an overview of where things sit with the current IHT proposals on unused pensions passing through parliament and any lingering concerns that there might still be around implementation and issues. He will also want to touch on how the potential complexity of the plans might impact outcomes for beneficiaries and whether there is presently a risk of wider detriment and scam activity in terms of the confusion that such a change will cause.
Background:
In December 2025 the Government published the Finance Bill containing provisions to bring pension scheme death benefits within the scope of inheritance tax from 6 April 2027. We look at what has changed since the legislation was originally published in draft, and consider what action SIPP and SSAS providers need to be taking now.
Agenda
- What to do now?
- How will pension planning change?
- Occupational vs SIPP/SSAS?
- What are the alternatives?
- Will a new government U Turn this decision?
TO REGISTER
Please add to your calendar and click HERE on the day
Mark Plewes is Head of Technical at WBR Group and recently appeared by invitation at the House of Lords to inform the pensions finance bill debate.
Mark has been at WBR Group for over 3 years and prior to this role he was Senior Technical Specialist at Rowanmoor.
This should be a lively session with emotions running high!!.
Navigating pension’s Straits of Hormuz
This is an article I wrote in 2019 the morning after a meeting with friends to discuss what it’s like to get to retirement and get stuck in a kind of “Straits of Hormuz”. I thought it would be good to dig it out and re-publish- this links to the original.
I said this was a week when I was thinking about choices, retirement choices and something which the pensions industry (like no-0ne else) calls “choice architecture”.
De- stress, don’t get distressed!
I have previously described the period when you move from the relative calm of the Persian Gulf to the wide sea of the Gulf of Oman and on to the Indian Ocean as fraught. If you are on a tanker laden with oil , loaded from Kuwait or Saudi, you have the 21 mile Strait of Hormuz to negotiate, it is a rite of passage when you are prey to all kind of threats from land and sea, but you know if you can get through, you are safe. You have no choice but to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, your oil changes currency once you have, it is now a new currency.
The key to this narrow navigation is awareness and vigilance. Decisions need to be taken in this tight channel that are existential, your boat, cargo and most of all – you – are vulnerable. The prize is the freedom of the open sea tantalisingly close ahead.
I hope the analogy with retirement holds good. Read Damian Stancombe’s pre and post linked in post to see what trauma the retirement process involves. There is a realisation you are moving from one life stage to another and for most of us that includes accepting that the support mechanism that provided a framework is no longer there. We all know of people who simply can’t cope without that framework, David Butcher is good on this, mindfulness is what he calls the vigilance needed. It isn’t just the enemy without- the scammers and false prophets peddling financial products, but the inner voices of doubt that prey upon self confidence/worth.
The rite of passage from feeling at work to being work-free may not happen overnight, it may not happen at all, but for most of us there is a point where work no longer defines us and as a state of consciousness, that is the moment of retirement. That is the moment when we leave the Strait of Hormuz.
You can download it and paste it on your wall like I did when I had an office in WeWork.
It shows the extraordinary complexity of the infrastructure supporting the shift from accumulation ( on the left hand side of the map) to decumulation ( on the right hand side of the map. The Strait of Hormuz is guarded by administrators. Today those administrators are armed not with guns but red and yellow flags which they throw to warn against decisions they consider may be foolhardy.
Those decisions are usually “flagged” if the destination of travel looks likely to leave the saver “on the rocks” or “captured” by scammers. But flags could well be thrown where an unnecessary tax-bill is incurred or where pension is swapped out for tax-free cash at an unreasonable rate. Indeed there seems hardly a decision that we take in our financial Strait that might in retrospect be considered “ill advised”.
Is it any wonder that people dread being faced with the complexity of choice, the risks of taking the wrong choice and the likelihood that – other than from paying for advice – the decision will end in a trip to the headmaster’s study (aka MaPS)?
This is the ordeal we put people through at the very time when they are suffering the trauma of moving from being at work to retirement from work.
I am told that you could , at the height of tension, a small army of protection to keep you piloted through the Strait of Hormuz and so you can in retirement. If you have a rich cargo, you will do so since you can afford it, if you have a small bark with meagre cargo you are on your own. That doesn’t stop pirates.
Keeping it simple
To complete this extended metaphor (some would say conceit). we need a clear channel to navigate and a sound craft that carries us from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and beyond.
There is nothing that is going to make retirement easy, but we need not make it unnecessarily hard and that we do right now, with too much choice, too little direction and too many flags thrown to reprimand our non-advised decisions.
We don’t need to use fancy phrases like “choice architecture” to keep it simple, we can use clear direction and targeted support to pilot people to financial freedom in the ocean of later life.
Watch “Your 3 pension options in 3 minutes” on #Vimeo https://t.co/LPse4nFTYL
— Henry Tapper (@henryhtapper) March 17, 2026
“Tapper launches mutual CDC provider” – Corporate Adviser
Standing up for the right kind of CDC.
A new multi-employer collective DC (CDC) provider has been established by Henry Tapper, chair of AgeWage and head of Pension PlayPen, and Goddard Perry Actuarial senior actuarial consultant Chris Bunford.
Called Pensions Mutual, the body, which has been registered with the FCA as a co-operative society, will operate on a not-for-profit basis, and plans to launch within a year. It plans to be in a position to approach the Pensions Regulator for authorisation by July.
The costs of the entity will be paid by charges on the first group of employers in the region of 0.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent, although it will operate dynamic pricing dependent on market returns and longevity of members and their partners.
The plan aims to deliver inflation-linked pensions paying up to 60 per cent more than a guaranteed annuity.
Pensions Mutual says its CDC arrangement will offer more stable and predictable income than income drawdown offerings, and will enable a more efficient investment strategy than current drawdown or annuity models by facilitating a 100 per cent allocation to returns-seeking assets up to retirement age – tapering this element down to zero by age 85.
The Pensions Mutual CDC scheme will convert every contribution received into an amount of pension with initially targeted CPI annual increases using unisex fair value actuarial factors. Each tranche of pension will be visible to members so that they can see how their pension income is growing.
Where employers switch existing DC arrangements to the scheme, transfer of existing pots will be at the request of members. Pensions Mutual says it sees a transfer to CDC from DC being a three-year project.
The provider says it has received significant interest from employers and unions, which it says support its mutual structure.
Tapper says:
“The Pensions Regulator authorises the first unconnected multi-employer CDC schemes and we have not yet seen the final, adjusted CDC code. The door for authorisation opens on August 3rd and TPR has six months to say yes or no!
“We know that two organisations were making ready to launch such a CDC scheme – TPT and the Church of England—and now there are three. The third is a mutual—the Pensions Mutual—and it came into being at the start of March. Unlike the others it is dedicated solely to being the proprietor of a CDC for employers who want their pensions run as collective pensions with defined contributions. We are a CDC pension proprietor, starting afresh.
“The boards of the mutual and of the pension scheme are being established. We will announce our executive teams and also announce a board of trustees.
“Like others we will need to show ourselves competent and solvent, have a business plan, and have employers ready to work with us.
“So why do we believe we should become one of the few CDC schemes likely to be available to employers from the beginning of 2027?
“We think the answer lies in our title ‘Pensions Mutual. You become a mutual by registering with the FCA and agreeing to rules that ensure those who join the mutual benefit from it. We intend to distribute a significant proportion of the profits made by the CDC Scheme to the participating employers, rather like farmers who get paid by a co-operative dairy for the milk they bring to it over the year.”
Why the Government must have back-stop control of pension investment
Faceless markets
There is a general feeling that UK pension funds should be investing where they want. I agree that they should, but “how they want” is another matter.
Right now there is a trend towards investing in American software, notoriously the “magnificent seven” but also in the private sector a large amount of software holdings.
While software companies have been identified, it could equally apply to other private equity companies where valuations originally made in a low interest rate environment cannot now be supported. The interest rate effect on valuations was more pronounced in the UK than in the US.
It could be argued that the UK Government policy effectively encouraging pension schemes to purchase overvalued assets. But it could be argued that the way the dollar has moved against the pound has worked against American stocks. These are arguments about what markets to be in.
I wasn’t aware of anyone talking about this in Edinburgh. Instead we had silly and facetious political squabbles about mandation. I want to understand markets but I want to feel protected by regulation from markets that go wrong.
Markets going wrong beyond our control.
Those old enough in the Edinburgh room will remember that UK pension funds invested in the UK as a matter of course in the last century.
One of the reasons for that was that we had trust in our market- making and through the UK stock exchanges. How far we have moved from UK regulation of the assets of UK pensions can be assessed through this article in “Investing.com“
Apollo Global Management executive John Zito told UBS clients last month that private equity firms are broadly misstating the value of their software holdings, warning that lenders could face substantial losses in the sector.
Zito, who serves as co-president of Apollo’s asset management division and head of credit, said he believes private equity marks are incorrect as shares of comparable public tech companies have declined. His comments were first published by the Wall Street Journal.
The remarks come as investors have sold shares of public software companies on concerns that new tools from Anthropic and OpenAI could make existing software firms obsolete. This has raised questions about whether private credit lenders are holding outdated valuations of their software loans, triggering redemptions as investors seek to withdraw funds from private credit vehicles.
Zito’s comments at the UBS event focused on private equity valuations, but he noted that many companies acquired by the industry also obtained private credit loans. If the loans face difficulties, the equity positions are also affected, he said.
Zito identified software companies taken private between 2018 and 2022 as particularly exposed. He described many of these firms as lower quality than larger public competitors, referring to a period marked by high valuations and low interest rates.
The Apollo executive warned that private credit lenders and their backing investors could experience significant losses. He said lenders to a generic small-to-medium sized software firm could recover somewhere between 20 and 40 cents on the dollar if the companies are in the wrong place in terms of the new AI-led regime.
Apollo sought to distance itself from potential software sector losses, telling analysts that software companies represent less than 2% of the firm’s assets under management. The company said it has zero exposure to private equity stakes in software firms.
It should be noted that an increasing amount of the pension funds that we relied on are pension funds no more. Instead they are invested by American private equity funds, we know not where. We trust the American regulators and the PRA are showing increasing concern that no one understands the market.
I have come in for a lot of stick the past few days for saying that mandation is a means for our Government to intervene in UK pension investment. The entire world apart from me, Torsten Bell and Rachel Reeves are against mandation.
It is not the ABI , Pensions UK or the Government’s various “oppositions” , to take charge of how and where our pension funds are invested. In the end it is the tax-payer who elects our Government and our Government, working through the Treasury and the BOE, the PFA and then the FCA who control flows of capital.
We cannot pretend that the fiduciary responsibility of Trustees overrides the responsibility of Government to keep Britain in good shape. Patriotism should remain upper most in our investing and that is measured by our deep trust in our Government’s regulators to do the right thing.
A CDC pension starting afresh
In a recent podcast LCP’s Sam Cobley asks the question: “How many whole-of-life CDC pensions will we get this year?”
No one will know that until early 2027. The Pensions Regulator authorises the first unconnected multi-employer CDC schemes and we have not yet seen the final, adjusted CDC code. The door for authorisation opens on August 3rd and TPR has six months to say yes or no!
What we do know is that two organisations were making ready to launch such a CDC scheme – TPT and the Church of England—and now there are three. The third is a mutual—the Pensions Mutual—and it came into being at the start of March. Unlike the others it is dedicated solely to being the proprietor of a CDC for employers who want their pensions run as collective pensions with defined contributions. We are a CDC pension proprietor, starting afresh.
The boards of the Mutual and of the Pension Scheme are being established. We will announce our executive teams and also announce a board of trustees.
Like others we will need to show ourselves competent and solvent, have a business plan, and have employers ready to work with us.
So why do we believe we should become one of the few CDC schemes likely to be available to employers from the beginning of 2027?
Well, we think the answer lies in our title “Pensions Mutual.” You become a Mutual by registering with the FCA and agreeing to rules that ensure those who join the Mutual benefit from it. We intend to distribute a significant proportion of the profits made by the CDC Scheme to the participating employers, rather like farmers who get paid by a co-operative dairy for the milk they bring to it over the year.
A transparent business model for the Mutual will be matched by the Scheme which will work from an income fixed as a percentage of assets managed. This will be decided by the first group of employers; it is likely to be between 0.5% and 0.6%. It may be odd to put matters such as charges out for discussion but like our selected trustees and our strategy of turning contributions into pension we will listen to those who work with us.
Chris Bunford, our actuary, has made it clear that we will operate dynamic pricing – where this conversion of cash into pension will be influenced over time by the market returns achieved by investments and by the length of time our members and their spouses live. We see “fairness” as our primary actuarial driver.
Similarly, the management of our money will be influenced by our employers; some of whom will be experienced and wish to input while the majority will rely on the trustees and our CIO. It may well be that some employers wish to have their employees in their own section and we will be open to such discussions. There are advantages to sharing and sometimes there need to be strategies that meet the needs of an employer and staff.
Finally, but most importantly, we cannot think of any stakeholder as more important in a mutual than its members each of whom must be treated with the same fairness and offered genuine value for their money. Nowadays, offering an app to give information is not an option; it is an absolute requirement. I can think of no financial service I am a part of that does not give me access to information and to transactions on my phone. We want members to know not just how they are doing but how they are doing compared with other options.
The promotion of Pension Mutual’s CDC Scheme to employers will also be digital, we expect you are reading this on a screen. We expect it will be supported by unions whom we consider keen advocates of both CDC and mutuality.
Our pitch to employers will be simple: “better pensions at no extra cost”, though we will advocate greater contributions when they can be afforded. We consider transfers in of pension pots important but we also consider fair CETVs critical to confidence among members. Our pitch to members will be identical to that to employers, we intend members to get inflation linked pensions at up to 60% enhanced levels compared to a guaranteed annuity.
Not everyone can afford the flexibility of drawdown or a costly annuity. CDC is a better way for ordinary people to get “deferred pay”. We want to make retirement affordable for many more of us.