Re-Imagining Pensions Podcast | Powered by EY

EY episode summary: "In the fourth episode of EY’s Re-imagining Pensions, Paul Kitson, head of UK pensions consulting at EY and Charlotte Moore, co-founder of Moore Squared Communications, are joined by Patrick Heath-Lay, CEO of the People’s Partnership.Much of the pensions bill currently making its way through parliament is focused on improving auto-enrolled workplace pensions, says Patrick. We discussed how we are likely to see a decade of consolidation as pension providers position grow their assets under management. Once the dust has settled, Patrick said he expected there would be 10 to 15 pension providers.Patrick unpacked whether consolidation and a value-for-money framework would contradict one another and whether it could kill innovation by making pension schemes match investment strategy. He argued that a VFM framework was vital as a tool for comparison and innovation would be needed to stay competitive.We also addressed the issue of small pots and how a million small pots are created every year. While the current proposed legislation and the introduction of the dashboard will give people greater awareness, Patrick said this was a problem which would need to be fixed in the next round of legislation.When it comes to retirement income, we talked about it was important to put member need front and centre. With pot sizes currently small, most was likely to be withdrawn but the industry needed to do what it could to encourage members to do something better with their pots than simply leave in their bank accounts.Finally, we offered Patrick a magic wand to change anything he wanted in the pensions industry – he said we needed to refocus on the member and remember that they do not care about the same things as the industry, they just want a good retirement."About the guest:Patrick became Chief Executive Officer of People’s Partnership in 2012 and has brought a wealth of experience to a range of financial and customer service focused roles within the company. He’s responsible for driving the organisation’s strategy and was instrumental in the launch of People’s Pension, which now serves more than seven million people across the UK. Patrick is passionate about bringing simplicity to the complex world of financial services, providing straightforward and accessible products for everybody. He remains driven to ensure that People’s Partnership, as a company, strives to do what’s best for its members and help people across the UK build stronger financial lives. He recently celebrated 40 years in the organisation and is one of the UK’s most respected figures in DC pensions.About the hosts:Paul is a Partner and UK Head of Pensions Consulting at EY. He leads a team focused on advising pension funds and their corporate sponsors across the UK. Paul and has worked with some of the largest defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds in the UK including the British Airways Pension Schemes and the BBC.Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement.Chapters:00:00 Introduction00:38 Meet Patrick Heath-Lay02:02 The pensions bill03:03 Consolidation05:58 Pension landscape08:55 £25bn scale test11:55 Small pots problem14:48 Pension dashboards17:19 Master trusts and designing pensions around savers19:41 Contribution levels22:14 Putting member needs first24:22 Retirement support26:43 Patrick’s magic wand28:36 Refocusing pensions29:54 Closing#ProfessionalInvestmentPodcast#ReimaginingPensions#WorkplacePensions#PeoplePartnership#PensionConsolidation

Claire Southern, partner at Hogan Lovells, joins Paul Kitson, head of UK pensions consulting at EY and Charlotte Moore, co-founder of Moore Squared Communications for the third episode of EY’s Re-imagining pensions podcast.In this episode we get the lawyer’s perspective of what it’s like to operate in a surplus environment. Claire discusses how this changing the role of trustees and the greater array of options available to them.We unpack how a surplus environment could also change the way super funds are built with the possibility of new superfunds targeting run-on now a possibility.Claire jokes that a lawyer’s default position is to think about what could go wrong and talks about the importance of trustees being flexible enough to think about what they should do if bond yields fall and surpluses turn into deficits.We discuss how trustees also need to stay flexible in the face of a world of increased geopolitical risk which has the potential to reshape government agendas and the future trajectory of interest rates.For example, for many decades investing in the defence sector was an anathema to sustainable investors but that changed with the invasion of Ukraine. Claire emphasises how important it is to look at what will bring the most benefit over the longer term.Finally, when offered a magic wand to change one thing in pensions, Claire says she would ask the sector to focus on the important long-term goals of providing people with a decent retirement and for us to not get caught up in issues like GMP equalisation which only benefit lawyers and advisers.CHAPTERS:0:00 Introduction to Reimagining Pensions00:01 Meet Claire Southern of Hogan Lovells00:03 Trustees, member interests and pension surplus00:06 How surplus changes endgame thinking00:09 Professional trustees and difficult decisions00:12 Risk, uncertainty and staying flexible00:15 Employer proposals and trustee responsibility00:18 Geopolitics, markets and pension strategy00:21 ESG, defence investing and ethical tensions00:24 Long-term investment and what schemes should prioritise00:27 Claire Southern’s magic wand for pensions00:30 Final thoughts and subscribeAbout the guest:Claire Southern is a partner in the Hogan Lovells pensions team with a specialism in risk transfer. She enjoys working with trustees and corporates to understand their issues and provide practical and thoughtful solutions to their problems. She also believes that pensions – like most things in life – are helped if some fun can be injected. She is described in Legal 500 as "amazing at cutting through the jargon” which she slightly prefers to an earlier quote of her as an “out and out street fighter”. About the hosts:Paul is a Partner and UK Head of Pensions Consulting at EY. He leads a team focused on advising pension funds and their corporate sponsors across the UK. Paul and has worked with some of the largest defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds in the UK including the British Airways Pension Schemes and the BBC.Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement.

In the second episode of EY’s Re-imagining Pensions Podcast, Paul Kitson – head of UK pensions consulting at EY and Charlotte Moore – co-founder of Moore Squared Communications talk to Darren Masters, independent trustee at Capital Cranfield about superfunds and DB surpluses.We start with a recap of the changes the pensions scheme bill will make and observe how the original concept for super funds now feels like it is from a different era – one where pension funds were distressed and needed help to get to buyout.With new super funds focusing instead on run-on, this seems like a move towards consolidation. This was the original idea behind super funds and Darren explains what else would need to happen in the future to move us towards a realistic consolidation model for DB schemes.While everyone – the government, trustees and finance directors – would like to spend pension surpluses, no-one seems to know how. Darren explains how negative accountancy implications are one of the issues holding back people. The best option would be to explain the overall benefits of accessing the surplus, even if it has a negative impact on the company accounts.We grant Darren a magic wand to change one thing in the UK pensions landscape and he has GMP equalisation in his sights saying all this has created is a multi-billion business for consultants will minimal upside for scheme members.🔔 Subscribe for future episodes covering pensions, regulation, governance, and industry trends.EY podcast page on our website: https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/ey-reimagining-pensions-podcast/---About the guest:John has a wide range of pension experience including having been involved in looking after the Stagecoach Group Pension Scheme in various roles for nearly 25 years, in which he is currently serving as Chair of Trustees. He was also a long serving Trustee of the multi-employer Railway Pension Scheme from 2009 until 2020. He was instrumental in initiating changes in the 2021 regulations acknowledging the different funding treatment possible for open schemes, and is known for creative and challenging thinking. A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Scotland) Tax Board, his early training was as an international tax adviser. Over his corporate career he has benefited from extensive experiences in business appraisal and valuations for corporate acquisitions and disposals, and this has influenced his approach to pension scheme investment. Passionate about delivering fair pension outcomes and a believer in developing a pension system that is symbiotic with the broader economy.About the hosts:Paul is a Partner and UK Head of Pensions Consulting at EY. He leads a team focused on advising pension funds and their corporate sponsors across the UK. Paul and has worked with some of the largest defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds in the UK including the British Airways Pension Schemes and the BBC.Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement.---🎧 EPISODE CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction01:20 The Current Investment Landscape03:05 Market Volatility and Economic Pressures10:15 Private Markets vs Public Markets15:05 Risk Management in Uncertain Conditions17:30 Pension Funds and Long Term Allocation Strategy19:55 Liquidity Considerations for Institutional Portfolios22:10 The Role of Alternative Assets24:30 UK Market Outlook26:45 Strategic Positioning for the Year Ahead28:50 Key Takeaways for Professional Investors29:40 Closing Remarks

Our guest for the first episode of EY’s ( @ernstyoung ) Re-imagining Pensions Podcast is John Hamilton, trustee chair for Stagecoach’s Group Pension scheme. (@StagecoachBus)He talks to Paul Kitson, UK Head of Pensions Consulting at EY, and me about why Aberdeen agreed to replace Stagecoach as the sponsoring employer of the £1.2bn scheme.John explains how, finding itself with a strong surplus, the trustees of Stagecoach looked at different options available and chose to run-on with shared ambition. The scheme will target low-risk returns in the future with around two-thirds of surpluses going to members and a minority share to Aberdeen.Dialogue with the regulator was open and constructive – they are happy to listen to schemes which have innovative solutions while operating within regulatory constraints, John says. Other schemes should take heart from this deal and move away from inertia and conventional thinking, he adds.Pensions should be at the heart of helping the UK to generate growth – to help to address the Office for Budget Responsibility’s projected yawning gulf between public sector costs and tax revenues. That growth does not have to be confined to the UK, John said.If John were given a magic wand to make one change to UK pensions, he would alter the PPF’s remit. He’d remove the obligation to protect the PPF now that it is mature, highly-skilled and well-funded with a large surplus. He would replace this with a temporary objective to encourage improved member outcomes.🔔 Subscribe for future episodes covering pensions, regulation, governance, and industry trends.And here's the link to the EY podcast page on our website: https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/ey-reimagining-pensions-podcast/---About the guest:John has a wide range of pension experience including having been involved in looking after the Stagecoach Group Pension Scheme in various roles for nearly 25 years, in which he is currently serving as Chair of Trustees. He was also a long serving Trustee of the multi-employer Railway Pension Scheme from 2009 until 2020. He was instrumental in initiating changes in the 2021 regulations acknowledging the different funding treatment possible for open schemes, and is known for creative and challenging thinking. A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Scotland) Tax Board, his early training was as an international tax adviser. Over his corporate career he has benefited from extensive experiences in business appraisal and valuations for corporate acquisitions and disposals, and this has influenced his approach to pension scheme investment. Passionate about delivering fair pension outcomes and a believer in developing a pension system that is symbiotic with the broader economy.About the hosts:Paul is a Partner and UK Head of Pensions Consulting at EY. He leads a team focused on advising pension funds and their corporate sponsors across the UK. Paul and has worked with some of the largest defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds in the UK including the British Airways Pension Schemes and the BBC.Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement.---🎧 EPISODE CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction and episode overview 01:20 Paul Kitson introduction and role 03:10 Current state of the UK pensions industry 07:45 Key challenges facing pension schemes 12:30 Regulatory environment and compliance 18:10 Long-term trends shaping pensions 24:40 What pension professionals should focus on now 30:15 Final thoughts and future outlook