Agenda
08.30 – 08.50: Registration and refreshments
08.50 – 09.00: Chairman’s opening remarks
Jerry Gandhi, Director, C A P Services
09.00 – 09.30: Data Depths & Pensions Peaks: Navigating the Seas of Change – Will Your Data Cost You £Millions?
Danielle Higgins, Founder and Managing Director, The Tracing Group
Sara Leacroft, Head of Pensions Operations, Smiths Group plc
This session will cover the importance of accurate data when preparing schemes for buy-in and buyouts and will bring to life the potential costs of getting this wrong.
09.30 – 10.00: Pensions Dashboards: Getting connection-ready
Mark Adamson, Sales and Marketing Director, ITM
Ross Milligan, Technology Innovation Analyst, ITM
The Pensions Dashboards timetable has now been confirmed, signalling the countdown for schemes to get ready for connection. Join Mark and Ross as they explore two critical connection topics: technology and matching. Discover methods to ensure you’re ready, avoid strains on administration teams and facilitate engaged, satisfied members.
10.00 – 10.30: Measuring member engagement – using web analytics to improve the user experience for better outcomes
Ryan Sales, Delivery & Creative Director, Landscape
Pension websites and portals are an extremely effective means of communication as they measure engagement and can provide valuable insight into member behaviours. Ryan will share how analysing website activity can help schemes improve their digital communications, reduce costs to serve, and members plan for later life.
10.30 – 11.00: Keynote Speaker
Paul Maynard MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Pensions)
Paul Maynard MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Pensions) will cover the government’s current pension priorities; recent policy developments; and long-term vision for pensions.
11.00 – 11.30: Coffee break
11.30 – 12.00: Why asset owners matter?
Dan Mikulskis, Chief Investment Officer, People’s Partnership
Dan will discuss why asset owners are important institutions within the investment universe – why they need to exist, the important roles they play and the impact they can have. He will discuss two themes that have increased the importance of strong asset owners; the movement from active to passive investment and from owning stocks to owning funds.
12.00 – 12.30: Broadening Economic Exceptionalism in an Election Year
Ryan Reardon, Senior ETF Strategist, SPDR, SSGA
The US economy has proved quite resilient in 2024. Employment and growth have remained strong since the Fed began pursuing an aggressive interest rate tightening cycle to moderate inflation. In this critical election year, both policy expectations and politics are likely to impact portfolio allocations. We take a closer look at investor positioning and discuss opportunities for investors to benefit from the diversification and liquidity in US equities.
12.30 – 13.00: Conflicting Objectives – Emerging Markets, Financial Returns and Sustainability?
William Scholes, Fund Manager, Premier Miton Emerging Markets Sustainable Fund
What are the challenges for asset allocators investing in Emerging Markets? How can those challenges be overcome? What happens if we combine a more holistic view of global development with current asset-owner commitments to invest sustainably and support progress toward Net Zero? Join us as we explore these questions and the current outlook for sustainable investment in EM.
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch break
14.00 – 14.30: Decarbonising Pensions – the challenge
Marc Barnett, Head of Investment, Cushon
The challenge in decarbonising pensions is about ensuring your portfolio is resilient to a range of climate scenarios. Cushon will share their own experience, what they have learned so far and what the rest of their journey looks like. As they do this, we will hopefully answer some of your most burning questions.
14.30 – 15.00: Sustainable Fixed Income: Complementing your financial returns
Tim Banks, Director UK Institutional, AXA IM
Join Tim for a session, reviewing how AXA IM has helped clients implement climate change and more recently biodiversity into their fixed income portfolios to help and not hinder clients’ financial objectives.
15.00 – 15.30: Legal Update - Hot Topics
Matthew Swynnerton, Partner, DLA Piper
Matthew will provide an update on recent High Court decisions on scheme amendment powers, transfers and pension scams, the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance, the General Code and an overview of what’s on the horizon.
15.30 – 16.00: Keynote Speaker
Louise Davey, Director of Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice, The Pensions Regulator
Policy update - Louise will be speaking about the Regulator’s ambition to protect, enhance and innovate in relation to savers. She will explain how TPR has realigned its work and outlook to address Government reforms, contemporary industry concerns and policy development. This will include thoughts on decumulation, Value For Money, the needs of the DC cohort and the changing role of trustees.
16.00: Close of conference and drinks reception
