Why has WTW bought Cushon? Why did people buy Cushon?

Posted on December 11, 2025 by henry tapper

This is the company that many people wanted Cushon to be.

One interesting snippet from the WTW/NatWest Cushon press release comes at the end of Nick Reeves’ pre-report

I wonder what an employer in a firm such as Creative or Salvus is thinking having started with that trust, become part of Cushon who were bought and renamed NatWest Cushon and will now be part of what is considered “mid-market” clients.

Is the employer, let alone the member, a consideration in this deal? You decide as you read the corporate statements…

Here is the press release;

WTW to acquire cutting-edge UK fintech pensions and savings provider, Cushon

 London – 10 December 2025 – WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, and Cushon, a workplace pensions, savings and financial wellbeing company, are pleased to announce an agreement that sees WTW’s UK business acquire Cushon from NatWest Group.

The deal adds new capability and bolsters WTW’s position in the UK defined contribution (DC) master trust space, enhancing its capabilities and unlocking new growth opportunities in UK mid-size workplace pensions and savings.

Cushon adds almost £4 billion in assets under management and 730,000 members to WTW’s portfolio. LifeSight, WTW’s defined contribution master trust, has over £26bn in assets under management and 430,000 members.

Master trusts are the fastest growing segment in the UK defined contribution space. The industry grew by around 35% in 2024* and is anticipated to average around 18% growth per year, over the next decade*.

The agreement includes a referral arrangement enabling NatWest’s commercial banking customers to continue to have seamless access to Cushon’s workplace pensions and savings services for their employees.

Julie Gebauer, WTW President of Health, Wealth & Career, said:

“The acquisition underlines our commitment to transform tomorrows for millions of UK savers. Adding Cushon to our portfolio will enable us to serve all segments of the rapidly growing master trust space, with LifeSight continuing to focus on large companies and Cushon enabling growth in the mid-market. Cushon has built a groundbreaking technology-led solution that is highly scalable and has enjoyed great success.

We’re delighted to welcome the Cushon team to WTW and excited by the capabilities they bring us for further innovation in workplace pensions and savings. This acquisition opens possibilities to help a wider range of clients and support their members improve their financial futures.”

Ben Pollard, Founder and CEO, Cushon, said:

“We are thrilled to be joining WTW and excited for the next chapter in our journey. We can now focus even more intensely on what we do best which is delivering innovative solutions that help millions of people save for a feel-good future.

“Our proposition has created strong demand among NatWest’s corporate clients which we will continue to serve through our ongoing partnership agreement with NatWest. We look forward to continuing to work closely with them into the future.

“With our leading-edge market propositions, WTW’s strong capabilities, and NatWest’s enviable distribution, all the ingredients are in place to accelerate our next phase of growth.”

Paul Thwaite, Group Chief Executive Officer, NatWest Group, said:

“Since acquiring a majority stake in Cushon, we have worked together to grow the business by bringing more innovative products to more customers. Going forward, I am pleased that we will continue to offer access to Cushon’s services on a referral basis, especially given the ongoing demand for pensions solutions amongst SMEs and Commercial Mid-Market firms.

 “With positive momentum across NatWest Group, this transaction is clearly aligned to our strategic priorities, as we focus on delivering disciplined growth across our three customer businesses, whilst simplifying our bank and actively managing our balance sheet to deliver attractive returns.

  “Given the broader changes within the pensions market, and the increasing importance of scale, both NatWest Group and Cushon believe the next phase of the firm’s journey will be most effectively achieved under the ownership of a larger, more established player in this space.” 

The deal highlights the ongoing trend towards providers seeking to achieve greater scale and efficiency, enabling them to better serve customers and generate higher returns for savers. As the DC industry continues to evolve, WTW’s enhanced presence and capability is likely to set a new standard for master trust providers.

Together with Cushon, WTW is poised to capitalise on the growing demand for workplace savings, using its increased scale to enhance its offerings and member experience, further drive innovation and increase its competitive edge in the market.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

Plowman comment

There is no scale issue at WTW’s Lifesight; Lifesight has less than half a million savers (including deferreds). Cushon has more than 300,000 members more than WTW  but less a sixth of its assets.

For many years, I have promoted Cushon as a scheme that cares about where it invests and the interests of members. This is not how this press release reads to me.

It is hard not to think that this is a commercial deal that gives NatWest a way of walking away from a very bad deal.  In February 2023, NatWest Group agreed to acquire 85% of Cushon for £144m, with 15% retained by Cushon management.

So far there has been no details of the price WTW are paying but just how it feels to be an employer having been shipped from one provider to another, isn’t in the press release.

Cushon’s principal conversation to the market was over its deal with Nest, its investment in infrastructure and Julius Pursail’s high profile on the investment side

Was this just marketing? Does no one at WTW care much for what I thought Cushon stood for? Here’s how WTW’s head of retirement sees the deal.

Not once in reading this corporate talk did I get any sense that the members were going to get a better deal from all this – or indeed the employers who made their original choice for reasons that do not seem important a few deals later.

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

John Hamilton to explain what drives him and the Stagecoach Pension scheme

Posted on December 11, 2025 by henry tapper

John Hamilton will be presenting to our Pension PlayPen coffee morning crowd and you could be one of them. We have a record attendance to break and I suspect John will come close!

You can find a link to next Tuesday’s (16th) coffee mornings here.

Pension Playpen Logo

Here are some recently presented slides.

If you want your own copy, you can download the slides on this link

I will be posting the link to the coffee morning meeting later and hope that we have a way forward for schemes like Stagecoach who want to run on and to do so with either capital backing or the backing of a financially confident employer like Aberdeen.

The call for John to come to this meeting on Tuesday 16th, was made at Tuesday’s meeting where Richard Jones was speaking. I had no doubt that John Hamilton would seize the opportunity if he could. He could!

I want John Hamilton to explain  how he wants – as ongoing Chair of Trustees of Stagecoach – to embrace “innovation, growth”, in finding his purpose.

There are questions asked in this week’s coffee morning which we have shared with John Hamilton with this video. Go to minute 2o minutes for the section where Richard turns to Stagecoach and those at the Coffee Morning ask questions that John will be able to address next Tuesday.

We hope you enjoy it; the debate is an historic document marking the progress we are making.

Yes videos as well as slide decks can be deemed documents!

I am sorry I made no contribution, other than to announce this “document” at the end. I spent a little time with my neurologist who was evaluating my little grey matter.

The work with Aberdeen is some of the most interesting in the DB “endgame” and I hope that before long we can get a spokesperson from Aberdeen to join us. We have one more slot this year

Posted in pensions | Leave a comment

“The private credit market is going to be pushed to extremes” – sound familiar?

Posted on December 11, 2025 by henry tapper

One senior private credit executive put it bluntly to the FT last week:

“The [private credit] model is going to be pushed to extremes.” “

This was the problem in 2008, we got to the end of the possible in the banking system and then we were lifting cushions in the conference rooms in the hope that someone’s coins fell out.”

These are the ties between banks and private credit funds that have fuelled the rise of non-bank financing.

That’s a macro view and above my pay grade. This blog is about my concerns for the people on the omnibus who rely on retirement savings for their later lives, please read on..

My worry

I am worried for pensions,  especially as we see the private markets  “retailed” as they become more important to DC portfolios in the UK.

I first picked up on problems here in a story by Alexandra Heal of the FT in November, latterly in a conversation with Naomi Rovnick of Reuters earlier this week and today it is repeated by Mary McDougall. All three are excellent in their understanding and articulation of the problems which look downstream for ordinary savers. I do not claim to be expert but when I see a congregation of people who do care for end users (like me) I want to know more.

The problem , as Rovnick explained to me, is that a lot of the value of private credit funds is fictional. She talked with me as if I knew about “special purpose vehicles” and “collateralised loan obligations”, that went one ear and out the other, what stuck was the import.

The capital that has been leant,  will not be repaid , because the borrowers are broke. But rather than being accounted for in valuations, the private credit firms are rolling on the problem by transferring it to  new funds so that the problem is “evergreen”. We have had one fund manager “Blue Owl” called out for for trying to smooth away systemic problems in its private credit funds. It tried to prop up Blue Owl’s share price when it fell like a knife last week.

I recognise these kind of behaviours from 2008

Private equity too…

In her article in the FT (Nov 4th) , Alexandra Heal had warned of an impending problem

Hear it is private equity rather than private credit that is under scrutiny , not least because the public are picking up on the extra returns promised from markets they do not understand but suspect are a source of untapped value.

There are large “fees” – commissions to you and me, from selling funds and funds of funds. Worse, they appear to be impacting the market for institutional purchasers.

The number of deals needed to deploy wealthy individuals’ cash could pull managers’ attention away from investing the capital of pension plans and endowments, the Institutional Limited Partners Association warned.

Fees on offer from evergreen funds, a newly popular type of vehicle suited to retail investors, could encourage buyout firms to prioritise them instead of the traditional funds backed by institutions, ILPA said in a new report.

Billions of dollars are flowing into evergreen funds, and institutional investors have expressed fears privately that this influx of new cash could undermine their standing as the sector’s top clients.

Yesterday, Oxford Said’s Ludovic Phallipou warned that the “retailisation” of private markets was an accident waiting to happen – in America the courts are waiting to side with “Mom and Dad” as private equity gets caught out rolling over valueless investments, till they get caught out

British Pensions

So we come to this morning and Mary McDougall’s warning. She reinforces the concern expressed to me by Naomi Rovnik (who is doing a wider search on private credit).

I worry that due diligence on the private credit being bought to back up retirement payments in the UK (whether pensions or annuities) is insufficient. John Graham is a leading Canadian purchaser for pension funds.

He said to non-investment grade private credit investors: “It’s a ‘buyer beware’ market. You should be sophisticated and you should know what you’re buying.”

Once again the problems seem to go hand in hand with the retailisation of a market sector that has been well used. by UK pension funds. Here is the report in the FT today.

Consultancy Oliver Wyman said that private credit holdings by the wealthy have grown 2.5 fold in the past three years — four times faster than the traditional institutional business. However, the sector has faced a series of setbacks this year.

Blackstone president Jon Gray said in October that the era of excess returns had ended as central banks had cut interest rates, with mid-teens returns in private lending giving way to more muted results.

The implosions of auto parts maker First Brands and subprime auto lender Tricolor, which had both amassed debt from non-bank lenders, also reverberated across credit markets and prompted further warnings on wider risks from private credit blow-ups.

I am aware of UK pension funds who have profited by adroit use of private credit markets and have surpluses to prove it. But billion pound funds investing at leisure do the due diligence.   We have the whirling world of buy-ins to our markets by insurance companies, some of which are owned by private equity companies , some whose deals are supported by private market money. And where standards slip in one area, they can slip in another.

Is there  a systemic problem in a  market , alerted to us by Blue Owl then other fund managers with problems lurking in their credit portfolios?  If there are equivalent  issues with  private market funds and their hard to understand Internal Rates of Return, I worry for the end user – the pensioner and those saving for pensions.  The wealthy may be able to withstand it, those stuck in workplace DC funds may not.

 

Posted in pensions | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Is AI a problem for compliance or an aid?

Posted on December 10, 2025 by henry tapper

 

Ritesh Singhania is an old friend having been a founder of both AgeWage and ClearGlass. He has now set up a third company – Zango. For a third time he is asking the right questions

It seems to me that we are entering a different relationship between financial services companies and the the beneficiaries of the services they are involved in. I think of the move from retail DC to collective CDC as an example. Of course members will in future be guided through systems powered by artificial intelligence.

We know that people will be able to use their power  to ask questions about the investments they are making, what they are paying for funds and whether they have been treated fairly.

It strikes me that Ludovic Phalippou understands the ability of AI to empower the customers finding their money in private markets.  He’s another chap (like Ritesh) from Oxford Said. Many others including Eduardo Chazan and Ricardo Gasparini of Collegia, Suzanne Seaton late of Money Hub and the sadly late Dr Chris Sier are all Said alumni. Perhaps we should remember we have a fount of knowledge in one of our two greatest universities.

Is a retail charge cap (the AMC) able to properly work with institutional funds which work with different fee structures?

How does AI cause compliance officers problems and how can it help in ensuring a financial service remain compliant by using Artificial Intelligence.

I don’t know the answers but I’d like to know the questions we should be asking about the compliance of AI.

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A CDC Superfund? David Fair’s “end-game” is confusing.

Posted on December 10, 2025 by henry tapper

I am confused by this paper from David Fairs. Is it really a  personal submission or will it be read as an LCP report?

You can download this epic idea here . Or you can read LCP’s briefing to those on linked -in below

LCP Partner David Fairs has submitted a proposal to the Pensions Commission for a CDC consolidator or superfund.

His paper explores whether it would be beneficial for transfers to be permitted from Defined Benefit arrangements into a CDC pension arrangement and whether a CDC Superfund would be an enhancement to current end game options.

The paper highlights that some of the advantages of DB to CDC transfer are for employers it removes underfunding risk from the employer and means CDC can be accounted for as a DC arrangement, for members it will mean a substantive increase to members benefits as well as more flexibility on how benefits are received and for Government the nature of the funding approach will mean higher allocation to growth assets and ability to invest assets for longer time horizons.

CDC consolidation could create economies of scale allowing lower per member costs of administration and governance. Larger fund sizes will also allow access to investment opportunities and will create the governance budget to invest in a wider range of assets.

David Fairs, Partner at LCP, commented:

“In some respects, a superfund can act as a bridge between the two options open to trustees: run-on or transferring the scheme to superfund or buying out benefits with an insurance company.

Current legislation in the UK prevents a bulk transfer from a defined benefit pension scheme to a CDC arrangement. I believe that there are potential benefits for employers, members and the Government to looking at CDC as a consolidator or superfund.”

For the Pension Commission yes but quietly!

Do not think that scars from pension mis-selling have healed, they are still open.

Ten years ago we started to see DB schemes liberating themselves into wealth pots, this reached its peak for BSPS members  in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot but it happened around the country, people exchanging pensions for pots that make little sense to them  today. That’s why the next step after Retirement CDC is a retail product that allows people to exchange unwanted pots (many from DB) for CDC pensions.

But to confuse those implementing UMES and Retirement CDC with those  deciding on an end-game of annuity and  superfund is to glut our appetites – I fear we will become sick of it all

LCP and David have so far cleansed the appetite of those who are trying to get CDC in place and those trying to get DB schemes to run on. Let us digest what we have before bringing another course!

I do believe that  a CDC superfund could and should happen and (like Andy Young has told us) that a CDC superfund could and should be run by the state (as the PPF is).

But please, David and please LCP, can you have this conversation elsewhere, not while a  consultation on CDC is going on.

We already have our CDC roadmap and this is it. Let us get on with doing it. Please don’t risk a car crash on this road (map).

The place for this exploratory (and extraordinary) thinking is not in discussions of how we get CDC done, it is with the Pension Commission (PC2) as we now call it. It is for a private conversation not a public debate, whether this is through a David Fairs  or an LCP paper.

Can such a respected actuary (and friend) please let the two CDC proposals dawn? A new CDC pension superfund is for a private conversation for the moment.

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The pension industry will leave it till 2029 , hoping CDC fails

Posted on December 10, 2025 by henry tapper

In focus: Green light for retirement-only CDC

Minister for pensions Torsten Bell says:

“Too often people approaching retirement are left navigating complex choices and shoulder risks they shouldn’t have to face alone. By expanding CDC to more employers and consulting on retirement CDC, we are helping build a fairer pensions system that gives people confidence their hard-earned savings will last, and they can enjoy their retirement.”

Gill Wadsworth, an old style journalist I grew up with, is given the job of telling Corporate Advisers what is happening. I suspect they know but don’t believe it’s happening.

Here is Gillian talking with an adviser, for whom CDC appears to start not end with “Retirement CDC“.

Since the government is only looking to occupational schemes to offer retirement-only CDC, the significant scale and operational demands mean they will largely be the preserve of master trusts.

However, given the potential operational and administrative complexities of offering retirement CDC, even the master trusts are a way off demonstrating their capabilities in this area.

Mark Futcher, partner and head of DC pensions at Barnett Waddingham, says: “Operational readiness also matters. Administration and governance frameworks for CDC are still developing and will require investment and bespoke solutions.

Before widespread adoption, the industry needs to ensure those systems are robust and scalable.”

That’s true, that’s why the timeline for CDC is so long. Royal Mail began its discussions in 2017, 8 years ago. Here is the timeline going forward. Here is the Roadmap for CDC and you will note we have four years before we see Retirement CDC (the one that offers DC savers – not CDC savers- their chance of enhancement in their pensions).

All the action for Retirement CDC schemes happens in 2028 with the DWP sensibly curtailing the chart so as not to time the launch of conversions of pots from DC schemes till another application has been approved by “prospective” Retirement CDC schemes.

And here is the Corporate Adviser contingent moaning that they can’t get on with planning until they have more from TPR by way of guidance

“It is only with visibility of the entire regulatory regime that any prospective provider can judge whether they can introduce scalable CDC schemes to the masses – and in a way that is commercially viable.”

What is this latest whinge about? You can pick your expert from the usual suspects, here is the latest whinge.

“We are still awaiting a consultation from TPR on its extended CDC Code. This includes the potential need for TPR to approve this activity retrospectively – and may make it challenging for prospective providers to share anything of substance with trustees of DC schemes as part of the development phase. Given any authorisation application to TPR will need to have regard to a prospective provider’s expectations to build scale through commitment from DC schemes, it could be difficult to overcome the ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma here,” he says,

I had a conversation with TPR who tell me that the Code will be with us by Christmas. A Christmas present that most of the advisory community will find reasons to complain about because they like the idea of better pensions but hate the idea of doing the work to make them happen.

There is of course a good reason for that. While we moan about not getting enough by way of mandatory contributions (using auto-enrolment) we are happy to complain about getting an enhancement to CDC which the actuaries and the  Government assess as improving pensions by up to 60%.

That question is my question mark. Are those who manage our DC plans, our commercial plans – the ones we call master trusts, going to stop whingeing and use the very generous development plans offered them, to get on with it.

Or are they going to find more reasons to sit in DC and hope that CDC isn’t going to happen?

My advice to Corporate Advisers is that there are a lot of people outside the tent who are getting on talking with DWP and TPR and getting the finance together to put CDC together, not waiting till 2029 but using 2026 to test whole of life plans which can be launched at the end of next year.

But oh does this look a threat to the Corporate Advisers!

Mark Futcher (Barnett Waddingham) notes:

“It will be important to ensure that CDC does not inadvertently draw resource and regulatory focus away from further enhancing DC, which remains the system most savers rely on. CDC should complement, not crowd out, continued improvement in existing provision.”

Whether retirement CDC delivers a silver bullet in terms of better outcomes for members will only become clear once schemes are in place, suggesting much is resting on this consultation. 

Critchley (Aviva) says:

“The success of retirement-only CDC will depend on the attractiveness of the initial income, especially when compared to annuities, and how successfully schemes deliver on their promises.” 

Here is the backlash against the obvious enthusiasm people have for decent pensions;-  not indecent annuities or mysterious pots.

The attraction of annuities and drawdown to those who advise on and manage our retirement savers is only too obvious. You can watch it at DC award ceremonies, where the industry congratulates itself for earning so much money for itself.

We do not have to wait till 2029 to watch CDC succeed. We can get started today!

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Does Lord Gove think leaseholders will be freed? Harry finds out.

Posted on December 10, 2025 by henry tapper

Harry Scoffin succumbs to podcasting!

What am I doing , blogging a podcast? Well the rain is pooling on our roof  and coming through the ceiling both literally and actually, in the posh City of London. If we had a commonhold we would not have simply sold problems like this, but we have had to deal with delinquent freeholders for the 15 years I’ve been a a leaseholder and I’m a lucky fellow to have co-leaseholders who have taken action.

But even with all our bright minds, we still don’t get to speak to the freeholders who do nothing to ensure that the fabric of our building is maintained, despite charging us a ground rent and making sure we have no say in important decisions on matters such as insurance. I’m a Director of our leaseholders company and am empowered by Harry Scoffin, a young man on a mission.

Here he is with a man of a different generation , arguing for millions like me and my partner. Thanks Michael Gove, thanks Harry Scoffin, keep it going!

 

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A man and a woman making sense of investment for retirement

Posted on December 10, 2025 by henry tapper

I wish I’d put it as well as this man has

I’d wish I’d put it as well as this woman has

OPINION: Government must see pension investment as game changer for growth

UK businesses are facing many headwinds, but revitalising economic growth can help them overcome barriers to successful expansion. This will require higher long-term investment in infrastructure, housing, alternative energy, scale-up companies and modern technologies, without which corporate dynamism and growth will remain elusive.

Government policy seeks to increase spending on social benefits, the NHS and public services, to improve lives for many. However, paying for these, given the country’s fiscal deficit, has necessitated tax rises in the last two Budgets – and these will actually reduce economic activity and have been damaging to business confidence.

OPINION: Government must see pension investment as game changer for growth

Baroness Ros Altmann, former UK Pensions Minister

Of course, the impacts of the pandemic, higher energy costs and Brexit have hit public finances, so the Chancellor does not have unlimited spending powers. But tightening fiscal policy will not revive business prospects, especially as monetary policy is also relatively tight, because the Bank of England’s Quantitative Tightening program pushes up bond yields, which offsets reduced short-term interest rates.

British businesses want and need more long-term capital – preferably equity rather than just more debt. Government cannot provide sufficient funding but there is no need to despair. There is a potential solution waiting to be grasped, that could bring in billions of pounds of long-term capital, at no extra Exchequer cost.

Government could harness the power of pension assets as the game-changer that British businesses need to kick-start a new era of growth.

A radical change to the way the UK’s generous pension tax reliefs operate, could revive the flow of long-term investment capital. Recent figures show taxpayers spend around £80 billion a year on tax and National Insurance reliefs, to help people build private pensions. These are enormous sums, yet not a penny has to be invested here. And most of the money is used to buy overseas assets, which help boost other countries and not Britain.

If the Government were to require at least, say, 25% of all new pension contributions to be invested in UK assets, such as equities, real estate, infrastructure or small and unlisted companies, as a condition of receiving the taxpayer contribution to pensions, billions more could begin flowing into UK markets again.

This could help unwind the doom loop that has engulfed British equity markets. As UK pension funds have pulled out of equity markets in general and UK equities in particular, London Stock Markets have suffered lower trading volumes, reduced capital flows and higher corporate funding costs. Many good British companies have felt forced to buyback their own shares and increase dividends, instead of investing to expand or modernise their business operations. British companies have suffered a significant relative de-rating, higher corporate funding costs and many great businesses being snapped up on the cheap or moving abroad.

Instead of backing Britain, our pension investors have consistently reduced UK holdings, in an apparent vote of ‘no confidence’ in Britain. Over the past 20 years or so, most private pension funds have cut equity exposure from over 70% with most in UK markets, to below 20%, with only a small allocation to UK equities. Meanwhile, average bond exposure has increased from around 20% to over 70%.

The UK is a global outlier, as other major countries’ pension funds have significant overweightings in their home markets, including Australia and Japan with around 30% of their portfolios in domestic stocks.

By requiring at least a quarter of all new contributions to be invested in Britain, in exchange for the tax reliefs, the Government would be using existing expenditure to incentivise a nationally vital policy objective. Despite expressed concerns about fiduciary duty from many multi-national and passive fund management houses, there is clear justification for such a policy of incentivisation rather than mandation.

Pension funds will not be forced to increase UK exposure. If trustees or managers wish to invest more than 75% overseas, they can still do so, but they would not have the tax reliefs added to contributions. It is their choice, but of course it would also change the assessment of forecast future returns.

Most trustees or individuals would realise that the generous reliefs should more than outweigh any forecast UK underperformance over time. And the adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) restrictions on pension portfolios are not justified by short-term performance considerations, but are considered to protect against future problems. Equally, by reviving the regular flow of long-term pension assets into UK assets, trustees would be helping their members ultimately live in a better country in retirement.

Such reform could usher in a new dawn for British businesses, boosting our markets, investment and growth. This could be a win-win for the country, setting up a virtuous circle to reverse the doom loop of pension fund selling. A re-rating of UK assets can reduce corporate funding costs and attracting long-term investment capital from other investors.

What’s not to like?

Baroness Ros Altmann is an economic, investment and pensions policy adviser and former UK Pensions Minister

Ros Altmann
Steve Fine
Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Back to the future; the return of the surplus; Stagecoach and Richard Jones

Posted on December 9, 2025 by henry tapper

HT looking a lot better in this picture

Richard Jones’ excellent explanation of the history of pension surplus kicked off a first rate discussion.  Have a look at the slides to get an idea of whether you want to devote up to an hour of the session.

Richard Jones is an old friend to many of us but if you don’t know him, you’ll feel like one of his cronies!

Here is the video

A large part of the conversation is about the impact of the Stagecoach/Aberdeen deal and what it may do to a market which has until recently been most dominated by insurance companies.

Read some fine comments from Derek Scott, who was for many years COT of Stagecoach and Peter Cameron-Brown who is to this day a COT of UKAS. They started their careers in these jobs back in the 1980s and offer a commentary on the DB world we had in the last century.

William McGrath and Richard may moan about the absence of data from those days , rightly so. There is much to say for transparency and there is much to come out on the rules of  distribution of surplus  from the Stagecoach Scheme.

We hope you enjoy it the debate, it is an historic document of the progress we are making. Yes videos as well as slide decks can be deemed documents!

I am sorry I made no contribution, other than to announce this “document” at the end. I spent a little time with my neurologist who was evaluating my little grey matter.

We agreed at the end of my consultation to listen to the discussion. He said that he understood about as much about pensions as I did about brain surgery. We agreed on that!

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Richard Jones at Pension PlayPen today? Yes please!

Posted on December 9, 2025 by henry tapper

How good it is to have someone I want to see , doing the promoting on his social feed!

and then see it again?

But you could stick with your local blog

The meeting will be all the more pertinent as it will happen of a week of the announcement of Stagecoach’s transfer of sponsorship of its Pension Scheme to Aberdeen Pension PlayPen Richard Jones

Back to the future! The return of DB Surpluses with Richard Jones

henrytapper.com

Paste this URL into your calendar if you prefer

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Yzc2OTFmOTAtYjgxZC00YmZmLTllZTUtMDMyODhkOTU2MTBm%40thread.v2/0

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment