The era of the transaction is dead! Long live the age of collaboration! That might seem a strange sentiment to express in a...
The age of collaboration
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CIO
Solving the self-employment pensions conundrum
The Pension Commission has been reformed to address pension inadequacy. While there are significant concerns over employees not...
Will the Pensions Commission solve inadequacy?
Last week the government announced The Pensions Commission will be reformed to focus on solving pensions adequacy. At the...
Would Labour’s wealth fund be a good idea?
After the torpor of Tory government, Labour has hit the road running. Yesterday Rachel Reeves said she would be pursuing plans...
Value for money
While UK defined benefit pensions have experienced rapid change in recent years, in the world of defined contribution political...
The buyout bonanza
The rapid improvement in defined benefit pension scheme funding levels over the space of last year is extraordinary. According...
The great unwind
In recent years, institutional investors had to adopt the philosophy of the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and believe six...
War and maverick politicians
In 2022 the headwinds facing asset managers reliant on the UK’s £3trn occupational pension schemes became even more extreme. The...
A tough ten years
It has been a Darwinian decade for asset managers with some parts of the industry eating the lunch of others. Companies have...
Is this the death of LDI?
Most felt concerned went they heard an obscure part of the pension universe almost blew up the UK’s financial system. The...
What went wrong with LDI
A few weeks ago liability-driven investment (LDI) went from an obscure pension back water to front page news because it...
Why do pension schemes use liability-driven investment?
Since the end of September articles about liability-driven investment (LDI) have gone from the inside pages of specialist...
Will greenwashing kill ESG?
“The term ESG is less than two decades old, but it may already be coming to the end of its useful life.” That's the opening...
Impact investing and you – part two
If we want to include impact investing in all occupational pension schemes then we need to consider how we do this not only for...
Impact investing and you
Sustainable investing is following a well-trodden path. As a new investment trend gains popularity, it becomes more...
Making all private sector pensions sustainable
While the majority of the working population pays into an auto-enrolled defined contribution pot, the bulk of the UK’s current...
The fossil fuel challenge
There is a potential storm brewing between scheme members and pension providers over investing in fossil fuel companies. Six out...
The sustainability cost conundrum
Employees are increasingly aware their pension pots can be used to help to protect the planet and improve society. That’s a...
ESG and you
Now we have established environmental, social and governance factors are not a form of sustainable investing but instead a tool,...
Don’t mention ESG
Feedback is so helpful. I thought my last post explained why I feel frustrated when asset managers talk about ESG investing. But...
What does ESG mean?
Sustainable investing terminology can be perplexing. Rather than clearly define their terms, asset managers assume a high level...
Changing company behaviour
By providing capital to companies, investors have influence on executive boards. When used wisely, shareholder voting rights and...
Exclude or engage?
Investors face a choice about how to treat companies with less than perfect sustainability characteristics – they can exclude...
The government’s new piggy bank
Hot on the heels of Ian Duncan Smith’s suggestion that pension schemes should invest in unicorn technology companies came last...
Shades of sustainability
Sustainable investing can be a confusing concept. That’s because it covers a range of different investment styles and there is a...
Look forward in anger
Every pension journalist is aware of the intergenerational unfairness baked into our retirement system. Baby boomers working in...
Brexit and asset management – part three
In the last post I explained the importance of regulation for the asset management sector and how being outside of the EU means...
Brexit and asset management – part two
The last post laid out the purpose and structure of the asset management industry. It also showed how the UK companies had...
Brexit and asset management – part one
In the first post I outlined the importance of freedom of movement, mutual recognition of qualifications and non-discrimination...
Welcome to the hybrid workplace
As lockdown approached in March last year I wrote a guide to working well from home, distilling the lessons I’ve learnt over the...
What is sustainable investment?
When an investment trend emerges you can count on the asset management sector to develop terminology which is loosely defined,...
Brexit and financial services
Welcome to the first in a series of articles which will examine the impact of Brexit on the financial service sector. The aim of...
The defined benefit pensions black run
Conventional wisdom says legacy defined benefit pensions will tide over those retiring in the next few decades while defined...
Five life hacks to keep after lockdown
Sunny April skies heralded our return to a more normal life after more than a year of pandemic. I counted down the days until...
Pensions for the self-employed
While auto-enrolment has bolstered pension coverage of those working for others, retirement provision has ebbed away from the...
A better way forward
In yesterday’s blog post I discussed how George Osborne’s freedom and choice has made it more challenging for scheme members to...
Freedom and choice: five years on
In April 2015 Chancellor George Osborne changed the way people could access their defined contribution pension pots after the...
Are auto-enrolment contributions adequate?
Now my series of posts explaining the UK pensions landscape has been completed, it’s time to address which issues need to be...
Unfunded public sector schemes
In this final post examining the current pension landscape in the UK, we turn our attention to pension schemes for public...
Public sector pensions: the local government pension scheme
This series of blog posts has explained how pensions have evolved in the UK for those working in the private sector. Now it’s...
Auto-enrolling the private sector
In the last couple of posts I explained how the Labour government responded to the decline in the number of active members of...
Auto-enrolment: the Pension Commission’s ‘big idea’
The last post discussed how the Pension Commission was established by the Labour government in 2002 to review the level of...
Rebuilding the UK’s private sector pensions
In my last three blog posts I explained how the gold-standard of defined benefit pensions had turned from a useful recruiting...
The rise and fall of the gold-standard pension scheme – part three
In my last post, I discussed how the introduction of new accounting standards at the start of the millennium cemented the fate...
The rise and fall of the gold-standard pension scheme – part two
In the last post, I discussed how changes during the 1990s turned defined benefit pension from a useful recruiting tool into an...
The rise and fall of the gold-standard pension scheme – part one
In the first post of this series explaining the history of UK pensions, we discussed the concept of a retirement income and the...
What is a pension?
This is the first in a series of posts which aim to bring some clarity to pensions. I aim to explain pensions from first...
Preparing for climate change
The pandemic has underlined the importance of preparing for unlikely risks and provides useful lessons on how the world should...
Reducing risk by investing responsibly
Responsible asset allocation helps investors to look beyond financial metrics and reduce risks associated with a company's...
Creating a better working environment
Recent work-related conversations have fallen into a pattern. They open with a discussion about how we feel about being at home...
The future of the office
At the end of February I stood in a meeting room in the City looking into a nearby office block. Rows of workers sat staring...
Will Covid-19 undermine companies’ ability to sponsor defined benefit pension schemes?
It’s understandable why so many in the private sector feel their defined benefit pension is gold-plated. These provide a...
Staying happy and productive in an economic slowdown
Freelancing for 14 years has proved good practice for life in the time of the Covid-19 crisis. When the lockdown was imposed, I...
Uncertainty, risk and control in the time of Covid-19
The Covid-19 crisis has brought our relationship with uncertainty into sharp focus. It has shaken our feeling of control and...
Tips for writing
The lockdown has made us embrace communication. Marketing departments need extra content as they grapple with maintaining...
Working well from home
While many in the professional service sector are used to remote working one or two days a week, turning your home into your...
How the Covid-19 crisis teaches us about the importance of cash-flow
One of the first things I learnt as an investment analyst was never to become too bewitched by a company’s profitability -...
How to get the most from a conference
The Pension and Lifetime Saving Association’s investment conference gets underway in a week’s time. Here are my top tips on how...
Why Johnson should worry about loss aversion
Learning about behavioural economics is one of the best parts of being a pension journalist. This branch of social science...
How auto-enrolment shows Brexit is doomed
The auto-enrolment of employees in occupational pension scheme has been one of most successful government policies over the last...
A step closer to the death of the company pension scheme
The pension minister’s announcement that restrictions on the National Employment Savings Trust will be abolished in 2017 is a...
Beware of narrow government vision
Today I received a press release which, at first glance, looked like one any self-respecting financial journalist should ignore....
Tackling the pensions education gap
I’ll admit it: I have strong opinions about pensions and investment. I find it particularly vexing when anyone uses the word...
It’s time to consider compulsion
In the somewhat dry and technical world of pensions it is a good week when life is enlivened by two parties expressing equally...
An uncertain future for fund management
Last week KPMG issued a report on the asset management industry declaring the number of global players would halve by 2030....
Time for a cohesive pensions policy
t’s inevitable coalition government policy will be a Frankenstein monster – ideas from different parties are stitched together...
Not this form of collectivism
A collective defined contribution scheme, which pools together assets from multiple companies, has much to recommend it. It’s...
Is member engagement back on the agenda?
Even though more than two months have passed since Budget, the pensions industry is still coming to terms with the long-term...
The pension cost obsession
After months of speculation, the announcement by the government at the end of March that it will impose a 0.75% charge cap on...
The unexpected complexities of one government announcement
Beep! Another piece of analysis lands in the email box on how the withdrawal of the requirement to buy an annuity will affect...
When saving is a dirty word
Indulge me in a thought experiment. Imagine that an asset management firm has commissioned a marketing company to...
What is impact investing?
Just like life, sustainable investing is a journey. When investors take their first step, they tend to focus on risk and look to...