Defined benefit (DB) pension scheme trustees are facing ‘agenda overload’, with preparing for pensions dashboards and endgame planning seen as the top priorities, according to a report from TPT Retirement Solutions.

Its Insight Report, which surveyed 100 UK DB pension trustees, found that 38 per cent viewed pensions dashboards readiness as a priority.

Endgame planning ranked second and was rising quickly up the trustee agenda, with 31 per cent of respondents citing it as a major challenge, up from 16 per cent in 2024.

These issues were followed by liquidity, collateral and cashflow management (30 per cent), staying on top of member communications and expectations (28 per cent), and navigating market volatility/investment performance (26 per cent).

TPT warned that its findings pointed to a wider capacity issue, with trustees no longer dealing with a single dominating challenge.

Instead, they are having to contend with an increasingly crowded agenda whereby they need to progress long-term strategic decisions while meeting an ever-growing range of operational and governance demands.

Compared to 2024, some challenges had eased for DB scheme trustees, including concerns around accessing different asset classes, which fell from 29 per cent to 24 per cent, and data quality, which fell from 21 per cent to 16 per cent.

Smaller schemes with less than £1bn in assets were more likely to see endgame planning as a challenge, cited by 42 per cent of trustees in this group, alongside greater concerns around running costs (30 per cent) and staffing capacity (26 per cent).

Meanwhile, schemes with £1bn or more in assets saw dashboards readiness as the greatest challenge, chosen by 39 per cent of trustees in this cohort, followed by liquidity, collateral or cashflow management needs at 33 per cent.

“For a number of years, the industry conversation was dominated by funding, de-risking and endgame planning,” said TPT Retirement Solutions commercial director, Nicholas Clapp.

“Those priorities have not gone away, but there is now greater recognition of the growing practical realities trustees face in overseeing a pension scheme.

“Dashboards, governance, data, administration and implementation projects all compete for the same time and resource.”

TPT Retirement Solutions head of consultant relations, Katherine Lynas, added: “What we are seeing is that operational complexity is becoming a strategic issue.

“Trustees are evaluating endgame options while also thinking about how much governance, resource and ongoing management each route requires.

“That's why consolidation options that provide scale and simplicity are becoming increasingly important considerations.”

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