I never meant to end up in pensions. In fact, I spent the first 15 years or so of my life dreaming about overthrowing capitalism. My father was a Marxist and fed this passion, telling me I would grow up to be a leader of men, and I actually felt that being a revolutionary wasn’t…
Ministers are planning to reintroduce pension scheme investment mandation powers into the pensions bill, after the House of Lords removed them. The revised approach would cap the mandation power at 10% of assets and position it as a backstop to the Mansion House Accord, rather than an open-ended ability to direct investment. This is being…
Recent reforms have focused heavily on private markets and infrastructure. These are important, but the UK stock market also supports growth, and it is easier for schemes to use and for members to understand. A new report from New Financial argues that the government should revisit the role of listed equities in the pensions investment…
Happy New Year! I hope you all had fabulous breaks! 😊 It seems appropriate that my first blog of 2025 looks at what might be coming up for pension schemes this year. Defined Contribution (DC) Schemes So much change is expected here! Alongside Value for Money (VFM) framework development, the government is looking at setting…
I feel like the Government’s agenda around pension scheme investment is a bit confusing at the moment. On the one hand, there is the drive for DC schemes to invest more in illiquids, infrastructure and private markets generally. Then there is the added element that the Government believes a growing proportion of this needs to…
The Government is frustrated at the slow pace of LGPS pooling. Since the eight LGPS pools were set up in 2015, the Government has been pushing for 100% pooling. However, as of March 2024, only 45% of LGPS assets are invested through pools (HMT, 2024). The level of pooling varies by Local Authority, in 2022…