The Pensions UK Conference’s stimulating final morning

Posted on March 13, 2026 by henry tapper

The final day of the Conference was an exhausted one , the plenary hall was largely empty for some excellent sessions and many seemed (the observation of Rory Sutherland) to have gone home early frightened of travel. Certainly my late afternoon journey back to London was full of people getting around using other routes than the West Coast.

Global economics for pensions need to follow long-term trends (says Faisal Islam)

The paucity of delegates was a shame as there were several sessions of intellectual vigour. We had a final morning mercifully free of advertisements that allowed those who attended to exercise their brains.

Early on , Faisal Islam of the BBC gave us his view of world economics , focussing on China. The long-term economic trends may be obscured this month by the Iranian war but I sat with Tom McPhail who observed that Faisal was better when off script and talking with John Chilman. We too must put aside the present crisis in taking the long view of pensions.

Investing regionally needs people on the spot

There followed a session on delivering regional investment through local people in Wales, Scotland  and Centrally in England. This worked when it focussed on the needs of local economies and Sally Bridgeland particularly brought out how pension funds can help in Wales through the Bank of Wales. Richard Lockhead would have been better if he had been less abrasive to everyone who wasn’t Scottish in the Hall. Richard Law-Deeks spoke for the Central Pool of the LGPS.  One question that came up throughout was that if pensions get so big that they cannot invest in small ventures (for lack of time), then regions will lose out to the big projects and to overseas.

I was struck by the importance of the Bank of Wales and the need for local sources of finance into which funds can dip. Let it not just be LGPS m USS and Railpen that does so, let us hope that the large mastertrusts and the CDC schemes, will have the energy to go local.

I am glad I made it to to a session of default pathways for DC master trusts.

The difficulty of offering people the freedom of drawdown from pots was in evidence in this session, I had to admit to being quite befuddled by solutions presented by Jenny Holt of Standard Life and Peter Smith of TPT. Finding ways of bending default solutions to the needs of individuals seems to misunderstand that the default pension saver is after a pension.

Janette Weir spoke of her firm (Ignition House’s) experience of what people do when left to their own devices and she used the work she does each year with the FCA. Her frustration was palpable in the hall, we fealt it!

The difficulty that the providers have is to justify the need for flexibility in default pathways when most people who follow the default solution do not want to take decisions or communicate their needs so they can be defaulted into an appropriate fund.

I hate to repeat myself, but those who don’t know what they want by way of financial planning are anticipating their pension plan to pay a pension.

Behaviour finishes us off

The morning and the conference finished off with two quite different speeches from behaviouralist.  Margaret Heffernan talked without slides for 50 minutes about how to invest through  successful leadership. This was a very well paced and beautifully delivered session on how we can get good decisions out of leaders by investing in getting structures they can operate in. I hope that there is a video made available as this was intellectually a class apart.

That is not to denigrate what followed, which was the wonderful Rory Sutherland who was so full of fun, ideas and emotional intelligence that we could have been listening to him and missed our trains and planes some time in mid-afternoon.

He explained what we all know, that we must make pensions emotionally attractive, not just for forty years ahead but for today. Marketing pensions to large numbers of people requires a skill set which Sutherland shared with us and which I will do my best to learn from in converting saving for wealth to saving for pensions. It cannot be done with brain cells alone, we need to understand what makes ordinary people react positively to ideas.

Rory Sutherland finished us off by putting a smile on our faces. Thanks Pensions UK for a good last day, I at least was there throughout and happy to report a stimulating final morning.

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Oliver Morley speaks at our coffee morning (coincidental to Ostermann’s departure)

Posted on March 12, 2026 by henry tapper

In an eventful week when his successor at the PPF resigned unexpectedly , here is the past CEO of PPF (but one) as the latest CEO of MaPS. I watched the event from a northbound train and am looking forward to it again, this time once I get home from Edinburgh

For those who love mysteries of the Boardroom ,

 

Here is the headline that announced her departure (and the story), followed by her explanation (partial)

Here’s a galley of departed CEOs

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A day when CDC was dragged into PUK’s hall!

Posted on March 12, 2026 by henry tapper

I make no defence for being in Edinburgh to right an unintentional bias in the conference agenda that neglects the arrival of CDC as a new force in Pensions UK.

We have £1.2tr in funded DB  pensions  and future liabilities of rather more than that.  My friends tell me there needs to be growth in our legacy pension assets to pay the bills but that is being taken of, 75% of our 4,500 DB funds are in surplus and the PPF is in surplus to around £16bn. I am all for an improvement in education of DB trustees who need to move from “endgame” thinking, to run on thinking (where appropriate).

But I do not think that pensions ends with the closure of DB to future accrual. It has not found a replacement for DC in the past 20 years, not until now. But since October 22nd 2025 there is a generally available way for companies large and small to work together to deliver pensions to staff through CDC.

This heroic advance is being ignored by Pensions UK and it was ignored again yesterday. I had to raise the question of the availability of CDC to those in the room and the million + employers not in the room with staff who would benefit from a pension not a pot.

My questions to Torsten Bell during his talk were whether he was promoting UMES to employers for use from 2027 and whether in following years, Retirement CDC would follow. The answers were positive on both accounts and while Retirement CDC is principally of interest to master trusts to promote, I have no hesitation when asked in saying Pensions Mutual has been set up with the FCA to offer employers control  of their CDC scheme within collectively.

As I left the room following Torsten Bell’s speech, a message appeared on my phone asking me if I could explain CDC to a group of union pension officers. A meeting room was found and so was the only union officer in the building (Glyn Jenkins) , Terry Pullinger came to his computer and we had an hour discussing what CDC could mean. The message to unions is very simple – better pensions for their members at no extra cost to them or their employers. A Mutual to run the CDC and trustees reflecting the views of members, their representatives and their employers.

I do not suppose that the opportunity was quite so well planned by Torsten Bell as I am making it sound, but his enthusiasm to get CDC done is what has given us the courage to promote CDC for progressive employers who see truth in the statement that CDC offers up to 60% more in pension than DC.

I know that such progressive employers do exist and there are several at this conference who are determined to get CDC in and not wait for the partial solution that is Retirement CDC, a solution when you get to retirement and not available for a few years.

Willis Towers Watson gave an effective and sensible explanation of how Retirement CDC will work as an extension of their DC workplace – LifeSight – is big enough to offer CDC without having to recruit new employers. I see it as a defensive mood to ensure they keep members within the fold while Pensions Mutual aggressively sets after those in DC who are set to get no pension (only a pot and retirement guidance).

I don’t think that UMES whole of life CDC needs compete with Retirement CDC when operated by WTW but there are not many Master Trusts who have the capacity to deliver as explained. It is an elite product for the elite employers able to access LifeSight.

For the Union pension officers, what is needed is something that they can take to employers as a non controversial improvement in their members later life pay. CDC on its own will not solve the problem of pension adequacy but it will be a start and if followed by increases in contributions and ambition by employers, there will be hope for the future.

I last saw that hope in the early years of this century when DB accrual was at its height and people still looked forward to retirement as a time when they could relax in financial comfort. Those millions were those in DB plans (public and private) and today the numbers coming through with that same comfort is massively reduced.

Yesterday I wanted to bring the ambition that we once had back into the Conference and I hope I did. I hope this blog nudges us a little further towards that comfort. I hope that in conjunction with the DWP and TPR, we will see UMES CDC delivered this year and Retirement CDC two years later.

Pensions UK has underestimated the importance of CDC to unions, employers and savers  It  should recognise that pensions did not stop when private DB stopped , it is returning with CDC to offer people better pensions.

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Can and should pensions do society good? PUK day two

Posted on March 12, 2026 by henry tapper

Torsten Bell on how we can protect the UK from warfare

The second day of the Pensions UK Conference made the coming and going to Edinburgh worthwhile. Two important speeches from politicians , some relevant discussions on pensions to come and a Gove v Lucas debate on the importance of Environment, Society and Governance in our investment.

In yesterday’s blog I hinted that we had not been served up memorable speaking , nor lively discussions let alone a debate, Wednesday was quite different and made it worth not just the travel but the loss of Cheltenham’s racing (who won?).

I would also reckon this the most sober Conference I’ve been to. It’s been mentioned that the Exhibition is a place of meaningful conversation, if there is delight it’s in smoothies not whiskies.

That said , I spent the main part of the afternoon locked in a room with John Hamilton and Glyn Jenkins discussing the import of CDC to pensioners along with 20 or so union pension officials around the country who entered the Conference via the internet.

I will write separately about my take from Torsten Bell’s speech, but it was delayed to hear the wrapping up of Michael Gove and Caroline Lucas, Lucas argued that Environmental Strategies have a future while Gove said that their import was now fully absorbed in investment thinking and we could shut up about them. There was a post before and after the debate and the numbers remained consistent. There are two delegates voting that ESG is maintained to every one who who voted for scrapping it. This did not alter with the debate suggesting people have firm views.

It was up to me to poke the bear who lurked asleep but who sprang to life towards the end. American fund managers do not talk so much about ESG and I suggested this was out of sensitivity to President Trump’s views. I did not use the word woke , nor did the Chair, Gregg McClymont who was clearly not going to let the discussion descend to using terms like “woke” to characterise Caroline Lucas’ position.

But soon after my interjection there was another questioning whether any strategy or product based around ESG could withstand the arrival of Reform I (and I suspect others) realised that the only political force not represented in the room was that of Richard Dice and the populism of Nigel Farage.

How far Gove is from Reform was illustrated by an example of how Government can influence good governance and social good. When Housing Minister he claimed to have met with Railpen about owning residential freeholds. He mentioned this in the context of Grenfell and the social ill that tower block brought on its community. This blog has noted in the context of freeing leaseholders from freeholder’s ground rent, that Railpen got rid of its freeholds. To me this is an argument that Government can  be an instrument of governance in pensions. I congratulate Gove for being an agent of good and we need to promote good deeds of pension schemes whether they come from withing the trust boards or are brought to its attention.

My rather bland position is that our ESG thinking has not dragged our pensions back. I am in a fossil free pension fund which suffered with the spike in oil prices of late and will benefit from the gradual movement to energy from cleaner sources. We find rises in  fuel prices depress equities and war is behind both. If that doesn’t tell us about the vulnerability of pensions to bad behaviour- what does.

With that I will finish. It’s where Torsten Bell started.and I think it plays to both Lucas and Gove who both appealed to our better natures. Bell did too as I will come on to in another blog.

Om a less positive note we had a rant from shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions where we had to listen to 45 minutes of venom that the Government might have the power in future to mandate investment strategies on pensions that did not invest in accord with the wishes of tax- payers and the people they elect (Government).

The morning debates were  rather better than the final session of the day which saw debate deteriorate into the kind of Westminster politics that has no place in the Pensions UK conference.

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The need for more money for PENSIONERS in the UK

Posted on March 11, 2026 by henry tapper

We are guests of Pensions UK and I sometimes forget that it’s pensioners in the UK that we are looking after. I went to my friend Enid’s funeral last Tuesday. She was 98 and she lived off her pension happily till the day she died. The money that came out of that pension was created by investment when she stopped looking after her children  (in 1980).

The DC system of saving takes us half the way but not the whole way. Enid would not have survived happily into her 98th year had she not had the financial support of a pension.

This is very important to remember when we consider the inefficiency of DC pension saving which does not invest money in growth assets but encourages savers to take money in cash when they slow down or finish working. People do take their money (the FCA studies show they do so in huge numbers) because there is no pension to be paid to them.

Now we are in a position to pay people pensions from the money they save through the whole of their lives and in doing so , we can keep their money invested in growth assets from the days when they star (let’s say their early twenties) to the day they did (think of Enid). This is where the extra pension comes from.

By being part of collective schemes, people like my son (in his twenties) to those like me (at retirement age) and those like Enid and my Mum (close to being centurions) can have confidence that they will get decent pensions.

I asked yesterday in a session, how we will we judge the Value for Money of a CDC scheme. The answer will in time be by comparison to the pension paid by a retirement income paid as a default by a DC scheme using drawdown or buying annuities Here growth is made but retained by the insurer and financial adviser and the scheme. Necessarily this way of doing is inefficient to the pensioner who gets up to 60% less than they would get under CDC.

You may think that 60% figure is wrong, but it is endorsed by several companies and by the PPI and by my Pensions Mutual numbers.

Which is why I am at the Pensions UK Conference to ask the question why are we not looking at getting the money not into Pensions UK but into the Pensioners in the UK.

We really have spent too long paying people too little in retirement when we could pay them more and why we have avoided paying them the full value that their money earns is quite beyond me.

Today we will have Torsten Bell talking to us about pensions and then WTW talking about CDC. I won’t some straight talking about VFM and CDC and why the Pensioners in the UK aren’t getting the value that Pensions UK should be arguing for.

I know why people don’t get the full value of their pensions and I know they should . I will not be quiet about that! We need a way to get the growth that invested money makes, into the hands of those  owed up to 60% more pension.

 

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Pensions UK – Pensions struggle to break free of their past!

Posted on March 11, 2026 by henry tapper

People’s Pensions ads on Princes Street, they were speakers at three of the sessions I went to yesterday. A big Conference for them

The journey to Scotland has been hard for many coming from the West. The fire by Glasgow station meant for many cancellations and for those using trains (perhaps for ecological reasons) few escaped delays. I was one of the few travelling in a standard coach with Nico Aspinall a few seats away. It may take longer in the train but it did not stop meetings and attending a Pension PlayPen coffee morning with Oliver Morley.

It was a day when the position of CEO of PPF was in the news and Oliver Morley has along with Lawrence Churchill another voice outside the tent who once was ther.

The PPF representative I talked to in Edinburgh knew only a day and a bit before the public did of Michelle’s departure and of Richard Beavan’s interim promotion.

Compare this departure with the elegant transfer of Emma Douglas from Aviva Exec and Chair of Pensions UK  – to become Chair of TPR and you have quite a contrast.

So what of the Conference?

Emma did indeed commence proceedings and after her prolonged stay in position it was something of a victory lap for her.Her introduction spoke of a change in pensions but LCP had run a fringe event featuring their part in the transfer of Stagecoach’s Pension Scheme to sponsorship of Aberdeen leaving the bus company without liabilities for guaranteed pensions.

What followed in the opening afternoon was a number of panels. The first of these  discussed”Investment strategies in turbulent times” which brought together Dan Mikulskis , with Joe McDonnell and Mark Goswig.  Dan gave us  the private sector’s pension  future as master trusts while the latter represented  Border to Coast (an LGPS pool) and Railpen (a partially open DB master trust)

It set the tone of the afternoon. I hope that as the Conference moves on , we will see the future as less a bifurcation between a DB past and a DC future with the council tax payer guaranteeing LGPS in the middle!

I sense there has been a movement in the private sector, perhaps initiated by Royal Mail several years again but now taken up by unions and some progressive employers towards a middle way called CDC. That this might be occurring was not reflected in the opening panel nor in the two following panels I attended.

I had thought that a panel discussion between the FCA, TPR and Dan’s number two (Phil Butler) on measuring “value” might give us an opportunity to look at DC as a pension. Indeed Joey Patel kicked off saying that TPR has changed from thinking of DC’s outcome as a pot, to thinking of it as a pension. This gave hope that the VFM would move us on from the fiasco that the VFM Framework has become.

Unfortunately we did not follow Tom McPhail and my questions as to why VFM did not consider Value in terms of pensions people get (whether from DC or CDC). The audience, protected from the noise of the Exhibition behind them by wearing headphones, seemed mildly to think that people would find things improved by the Framework, but it has long ago been decided that VFM will be for Government first, large employers last and savers at the end of the long tail of distribution. I know all three of the panellists can do better than this if given the opportunity to speak their minds, but all seemed constrained by the constraints of their employment.

Two down and two  left to go. Having been collared by TPR for an interview,  I missed Aberdeen’s discussion on DC investment, another panel which included Aegon and Mercer.

But I got to see as a finale, a discussion of the value that pensions could get by partnering with ~Government using the British Business Bank and National Wealth, focused by the Office for Investment. Each department was represented by a man so we only had Mercer’s Tess Page to bring some variety in gender and in tone.

Sadly, the participants seemed to be stuck in a world of LGPS pools and what remains of open DB (Railways and USS got mentioned). I thought this a little sad and commented from the floor that this Conference has been billed as a seeing the future of pensions being quite different, as Joey of TPR – a future of pensions not pots and I thought this would give the bankers a chance to discuss the longer time horizons that pensions would return to as a result.

The idea of default retirement funds such as that announced by Nest and those proposed ty the DWP for UMES CDC did not get mentioned. It is hardly surprising that only a third of the £15bn that sits on the shelf of the Government bank has been drawn down. There seems little comprehension by bankers of who gets served by pensions (PS they haven’t all retired)!

So , as I left to find accommodation provided by my friend John Hamilton. I felt a little flat. This was a Conference that failed to kick off , at least as a debate. I can see that much fund is being had in the Exhibition hall by those selling their wares but this is a serious discussion of how we can (to use Torsten Bell’s phrase)  GET REAL.

Today we have two speeches – one by our Pension Minister, the other by the opposition’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions- Helen Whately.

In between we have a lot more panels , including WTW talking about Retirement CDC as the next big step. Oddly there is no one talking about whole of life (UMES) CDC which is here and will be launching next year.  This suggests to me an absence of discussion which makes no sense.

So expect to have me in fighting mood when you read tomorrow’s blog. Tuesday’s sessions  suggest that the new is struggling to break free from the past!

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Oliver Morley on MaPS and the Dashboard – 10.30 today (entry here)

Posted on March 10, 2026 by henry tapper

Oliver Morley CBE

 

This event can be joined by clicking here

The man – Oliver Morley

Oliver Morley is CEO of the Money and Pensions Service and joined it on 1 February 2024.

Oliver brings a blend of senior private sector experience at Reuters combined with a unique record of change leadership as a CEO in the public sector. In his time running the Pension Protection Fund, reserves doubled from £6 to 12 billion and the PPF levy on pensions fell by 80%.

At DVLA, both the tax disc and the driving licence counterpart were abolished, with fees cut for the first time and innovative digital services from a newly insourced IT team. As Keeper of The National Archives, he delivered the successful launch of the 1911 census and legislation.gov.uk. He has been awarded a CBE for his contribution to digital public services.

Oliver is committed to seeing MaPS reach its full potential “to help people, particularly those most in need, to make the most of their money and pensions.” His established relationship with key pensions industry stakeholders will support the team as we deliver the Pensions Dashboards Programme, with it now on track to the October 2026 target date.

The coffee morning

 

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Hymans Robertson’s blue print for CDC success – (a mutual’s take on it)

Posted on March 10, 2026 by henry tapper

 

I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening with Hymans Robertson discussing what success looked like for them in the provision of CDC.

I have yet to see more than TPT and Pensions Mutual stick their heads above the rampart to be shot up though I think one “mastertrust consultancy” is planning to offer a multi- whole of life CDC from 2027 and the Church of England continue to plough its determined route.

For Hymans , CDC sees CDC as an extension of its work in DC as can be seen by what they consider themselves “experienced” in. Less contentious is their “capabilities”. I think that we are all inexperienced at “AIR” which I think stands for actuarial, investment and regulatory success. This is largely innovation though on a platform that will continue to deliver DC for accumulation and CDC in retirement and Blended DC- the kind of risk sharing that NEST is looking to deliver through its style of guided retirement, design and evaluation.

Well done Jon Hatchett and his team for what is being achieved at Nest , but it is a variant of DC and will I suspect become the benchmark for VFM in pensions in DC.

But Nest is not delivering CDC and CDC will offer a better pension (though without the freedom and flexibility).

It was good to have a discussion with the consultants to the consultants to Nest and one of the firms claiming that CDC provides up to 60% more pension than DC!

We focussed in our conversation on what actuaries do best, discussing concepts such as fairness and value to sponsors and members. Pensions Mutual is rather different to DC models in not aiming to offer value to larger employers by dropping its pants on its AMC.

All employers will get a share of profits and large employers will get larger shares than smaller ones as large farmers get larger pay-outs for bringing larger quantities of milk to the co-operative data. So our discussion of what dominates discussions of DC practitioners was brief – we do not intend to offer “variable pricing” though design collaboration will be with the founding employers who will help us design a CDC plan that works for them. It is inevitable that our design will be designed around the needs of early movers, they must have some advantage for taking some risk that the venture does not take off.

Our approach to the conversion we offer employers and their staff on cash received to pensions promised “factor update frequency” is dynamic. We look to use technology to ensure fairness across generations and we aim to eliminated subsidies between employers and within employers. If an employer has “special needs” we will consider a section for them, but the bar must be high, sections are expensive to set up, not least with the Pensions Regulator.

Our actuarial priorities are to deliver fairness and I am pleased that we seemed to be on the same page as Hymans Robertson.

So what makes for success?

As a salesman, it was sad that we did not spend longer discussing what will be popular! I am of the opinion that there will be different influencers on employer decision making. I think unions will be more important than they were in auto-enrolment DC workplace pension providers, not least because CDC is a pension in a way that DC has not been.

It is very hard to promote member experience without doing the job, I know as someone in pensions for over 40 years what good and bad member experience is and will look to deliver the best in an innovative way that matches what people (even those as old as me) expect from banks like First Direct and Starling Bank (my touchstones).

Our operations must embrace the best in interactions with employers over contributions and proper reporting to clients to build up a positive reputation. We know of one AE provider whose early failures have meant they have not kept up with People’s and Nest who got it right, these are the benchmark for operational succcess.

We will need to have the best governance, not trophy trustees but committed trustees who stand up for members.

We will need to have distribution. I am not sure that we can always underwrite who we take on as we would like but as a mutual our approach will be to accommodate clients under workplace pension rules. That means living with 8% of band earnings and high staff turnover. Mutuality has to have an inclusivity that commercial insurance does not need to adopt.

We do not see many providers coming to market in 2027, most of the mastertrusts will adopt CDC at retirement and the scheme design of UMES whole of life plans will be popular with employers who want a smooth ride for employees from saving to spending. We believe that whole of life CDC should give an infinite investment horizon and though the “continuity” rules may require a transfer of some fund assets into defensive assets, we see CDC schemes going for growth in a way that neither DB or DC have been able to do in the 21st century.

On all this we were remarkably well aligned with what Hymans saw as its blueprint to success.

Pensions Mutual will succeed by sticking to an approach that gives early moving employers their say.

Though regulators and consultants matter , it is the employer who is fundamental to CDC  success, the employer wanting staff  to get better pensions.

 

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TPR’s new head of innovation has no experience of pensions?

Posted on March 10, 2026 by henry tapper

It is certainly innovative to put someone who has no background in pensions in charge of TPR’s innovation.

Here she is, commenting on her career progression.

If I have space left in my tummy for another coffee, I will have one with Sarah Meyers. I am not sure what can be done at TPR, that hasn’t been done, apart from innovate, it is undoubtedly a job with scope for improvement of the regulator.

She has had a career in Northumbria in Government , sorting out various departments and here is a photo of her on the banks of the Thames, with Blackfriars and the City in the background. She certainly picked her day well if this was taken in 2026, we have only had a couple where the sun has shone and it seems to have shone on her!

It is a feature of TPR recently , to hire from outside the pension’s community. Digital Data and Technology seems to be where innovation is at TPR, though I had hoped that it was sufficiently integrated to what we did that we would not have had to put a leader on a steep staircase to the cutting edge of pension innovation.

Let’s hope that she will find that staircase easy and that the shift from Northumbria to Brighton in culture and perhaps in person, will work out.

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Is consolidation into Master Trusts inevitable for DC schemes?

Posted on March 9, 2026 by henry tapper

I was interested in this conversation between Muntazir (Monty) Hadadi and a number of established DC faces.

There is clearly going to be a lot of pressure from unions and other member groups to get the better pensions that are available from CDC.

This being the case, can good single occupational DC schemes be replicated in a multi-employer CDC scheme environment? That comes down to questions of sectionalisation and perhaps of ownership of the CDC itself.

I’d like to think that the driver for good governance should best member outcomes so the question to schemes such as Monty’s is whether the DC plan can provide returns somewhere close to those of a CDC scheme.

My guess is that bus drivers would prefer deferred pay than a pot of wealth!

That Monty , his team and his scheme are doing well cannot be denied, but could they do better in 2027 with CDC?

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