The Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) events of Autumn 2022 were unprecedented for the UK pensions industry. Assets widely regarded as being “risk free” saw their value fall by more than half in the space of a week. Raj Mody is joined by Lauren Brady, Solution Designer in the Client Solutions Group at Insight Investment, and Sam Seadon, pensions investment advisory lead for PwC. What differentiated schemes that were able to react quickly to the emerging events vs those that did not? And what could pension schemes do to protect against future challenges? Lauren, Sam and Raj share their views in ..read more

Do Private Equity love or hate defined benefit pension schemes? It can be one of the largest and most volatile liabilities on a company’s balance sheet. Throw in the subjective nature of how you value it and it’s a bugbear when Private Equity are trying to buy or sell companies with DB schemes. The ever-growing volume of legislation doesn’t help. At the same time, we are seeing private equity backed capital providers looking to actively enter the market for taking on pension schemes. This could be in vehicles like consolidators, or bespoke deals where third party capital provides a buffer to h ..read more

ESG is a complex issue and not one which can be reduced to simple metrics, as this episode explains. We are delighted to be joined by guest speaker Clive Mather, chair of the Church of England's Pensions Board, for a fascinating conversation looking at the latest issues around ESG and Pensions. In this fourth episode of PensionsCast, we talk about the difference between grey and green investments, current market developments including energy, trustees’ fiduciary duties, and the role of pension scheme members’ views. For more information on any of the topics discussed in this episode, please fe ..read more

Having an appropriate journey plan is already high on the agenda for trustees and sponsors. With the range of solutions to support journey plans growing rapidly, now is the time to consider if your plan needs reviewing. Raj Mody hosts a discussion with Swapnil Katkar and Matt Cooper, pension risk transfer specialists, on what a journey plan means and what to consider when developing one. For more information, please contact the team:  raj.mody@pwc.com swapnil.katkar@pwc.com  matthew.l.cooper@pwc.com  ..read more

New developments are changing how pension schemes should go about investing their assets. Raj Mody is joined by investment experts Keira-Marie Ramnath and Sam Seadon, to discuss new opportunities available for pension funds, for how their assets are managed and what type of assets to invest in. For more information on any of the topics discussed in this episode please contact the speakers: raj.mody@pwc.com keira-marie.ramnath@pwc.com sam.seadon@pwc.com ..read more

What should pension schemes be doing about their ESG agenda? Raj Mody hosts a PensionsCast podcast with Liz Ramsaran and Patrick Iddison, pensions specialists, on what pension schemes have to do and could do in dealing with climate change and other ESG issues For more information on any of the topics discussed in this episode, please feel free to contact the team: Raj.mody@pwc.com Liz.ramsaran@pwc.com Patrick.iddison@pwc.com ..read more

PensionsCast is for anyone involved in managing pension funds, or anyone just interested in how they are run. Pensions can be complicated and we'll look to tackle tricky issues in a simple way. Join actuary and PwC pensions partner Raj Mody in conversation with various experts who are immersed in helping pension funds on a daily basis. We'll also be featuring guest speakers from across the pensions industry. There'll be bite-size episodes you can fit in during your walk, commute, lunch or whenever you want to listen. Subscribe to get the first episode as soon as it's released. Visit pwc.co.uk ..read more