Chris Wagstaff

In this edition of Pensions Watch we look at the central role played by Liability Driven Investment in the risk management of defined benefit pension schemes and consider whether a new economic environment of punchy inflation numbers and rising bond yields changes anything for this crucial aspect of risk management.

In this edition of Pensions Watch, the first for 2022, we consider what’s on the horizon over the next 12 months for UK pension schemes, what these initiatives mean for schemes and why each is key to improving member outcomes.

In this edition of Pensions Watch, we consider the proposed reforms to one of the world’s leading pension systems – that of the Netherlands. Crucially, we assess whether, post-reforms, the Netherlands can continue to set the bar for the three broad factors that determine pre-eminence in pension system design and if the reforms set a blueprint for other systems, facing the same challenges, to follow.

In Pensions Watch edition 5 (January 2021), we predicted that 2021 could be the year that the UK pension system was propelled up the global rankings, from its lowly and long-standing C+ rating, by the influential annual Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index.

According to the 2021 edition of the Pension Policy Institute’s (PPI) The DC Future Book, more than 95% of members of trust-based Defined Contribution (DC) schemes (including master trusts) are invested in their scheme’s default fund.

With the recent launch of the 7th annual edition of the Pension Policy Institute’s (PPI’s) The DC Future Book, compiled, as it has been since its inception, in association with Columbia Threadneedle Investments, we look at the key findings of this year’s research and what actions should be considered if good retirement outcomes are to become the norm.

Securing value for money, or value for members, particularly from a scheme’s asset managers, is central to achieving good retirement outcomes. With this in mind, we consider what constitutes value for money and whether it is being achieved.

With trustee investment governance, in many cases, being tested to the limit, not least in the early stages of the pandemic, in this edition we focus on generating better pension outcomes through improved investment governance and innovative investment thinking.

In this edition we focus on the increasingly discussed spectre of inflation resurfacing and bond yields rising, as economic growth gathers momentum and supply shortages see many commodities and manufacturing components post dramatic double-digit price rises. Ultimately, we consider the implications for pension scheme funding.