Tag Archives: Jon Spain

Triple Lock Revisited : Approximate Costs over 15 Years From 2024/5 -Jon Spain

Posted on July 18, 2026 by henry tapper

Revisited : Approximate Costs Over 15 Years From 2024/25   Outline understanding large numbers triple lock background major UK state expenditure 2024/25 UK state pension pensioner population triple lock definition wages growth prices growth random numbers used results conclusions Understanding … Continue reading →

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Will Hutton and others remind us that investing in UK equities is value for money.

Posted on May 13, 2026 by henry tapper

Here is Will supporting Steven Fine on Linked in I bring to the table former Government Actuary – Jon Spain, who commented yesterday on a blog on this topic you can access here. I’ve now extended the material which is … Continue reading →

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Jon Spain speaks out against pension orthodoxy today

Posted on July 22, 2025 by henry tapper

Many of us have grown up with Jon Spain at GAD. I remember walking into him as he walked bare foot down a corridor in that most actuarial of Treasury outposts! Jon is a deep thinker and one who has … Continue reading →

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Jon Spain speaks out against pension orthodoxy (Tues 22nd)

Posted on July 17, 2025 by henry tapper

Many of us have grown up with Jon Spain at GAD. I remember walking into him as he walked bare foot down a corridor in that most actuarial of Treasury outposts! Jon is a deep thinker and one who has … Continue reading →

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“Long ILGs Revisited” Con & Jon ask why they’re in our DB schemes.

Posted on June 29, 2024 by henry tapper

We have just updated http://www.ukrpi.com, with the statistics and various charts updated until the end of 2023. Just over a year ago, Henry Tapper kindly published our short piece (link below), in which we wondered why ILGs have been so … Continue reading →

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“So what’s a pretty ILG doing here, then?” The indexed linked gilt’s called to account.

Posted on May 12, 2023 by henry tapper

This blog looks at how index-linked gilts came to be and asks what they are doing in LDI portfolios – its authors are Jon Spain and Con Keating In 1980, the Wilson Report was published, recommending that the UK government … Continue reading →

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USS and the risks of power over other people’s wealth

Posted on March 12, 2021 by henry tapper

    In political science and popular discourse,[1] the horseshoe theory asserts that the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble one another, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together. ..Proponents … Continue reading →

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Jon Spain’s submission on DB Funding

Posted on September 1, 2020 by henry tapper

Although people have been living far longer than used to be the case, the financial assumptions are generally far more significant than the demographic assumptions.

If, as appears to be the case, we can’t get simple things right, why should we think we can tackle complex stuff successfully? Continue reading →

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“Procrustean Pensions”; Jon Spain challenges tPR’s modelling

Posted on April 21, 2020 by henry tapper

On 03 March 2020, the Pensions Regulator (“TPR”) launched its consultation on clearer DB funding standards. The documentation included a report from GAD (the “report”) entitled “Modelling the Long-Term Funding Objective” dated 14 February 2020. This short piece concentrates upon … Continue reading →

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USS : FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES – OR OPPORTUNITIES?

Posted on March 20, 2020 by henry tapper

    Jon Spain is one of Britain’s foremost actuarial thinkers. You don’t have to  be an actuary to enjoy this piece – indeed it might help for non-actuaries to peer behind the actuarial covers – as Jon allows you … Continue reading →

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