DC and Master Trust Symposium 2023

Threading the needle to provide options for DC investors is difficult – from meeting regulatory requirements, to solving for the operational constraints of DC platforms to fitting into master fund charge caps. An area where DC plans are under provided for in terms of options is real estate. It is the same across other private markets. Other institutional investors have a wide spectrum of real estate investment options in terms of geography (why limit yourself to the UK at only 5% of the universe), sector and risk return profile. Invesco has worked hard to address these challenges by providing investors with access to platform friendly offerings that meet the return, diversification, liquidity, and sustainability needs in a cost-effective manner.

In this session Simon Redman, Real Estate Managing Director and Mary Cahani, Director – UK institutional at Invesco will talk through the development of these real estate offerings and how they can help meet investor needs in the short and long run.

This panel will discuss how DC schemes, both single employer and master trusts, can incorporate private markets investments into default portfolio allocations today. Conversation topics will include how to overcome challenges such as charge cap considerations, daily pricing, liquidity management and performance fees in a DC world. Lastly, this session will also address continued government encouragement by reducing barriers to access such private markets investments for DC investors.

2022 was the year inflation returned with a vengeance. This new regime is not just about higher average inflation, but also higher inflation volatility. There was nowhere to hide as equities and bonds fell together making traditional diversifying techniques redundant - particularly painful later in the lifecycle. We will explore what this means for DC portfolios, taking tangible lessons from 2022.

How attitudes and relationships towards money have evolved through the cost of living crisis and the impact on member behaviour.
The session will cover how we think differently about different sources of money including looking at how our relationships and attitudes to finance, wealth and value, may change as perceptions of money evolve. It will also explore the impact of this on member behaviour not only at retirement but throughout their career and what provisions can be put in place to support members.

The climate emergency is accelerating with the latest IPCC report highlighting the need for immediate and substantial action. In this session we will hear about the practicalities from an investment and investor perspective of highlights and challenges of achieving net zero in a fixed income context.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work – How TPR and the FCA are working together on pensions matters
The Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority are close cousins. They are both regulators who deal with pensions but approach it from a different angle. Until recent years they have not been operating in the same territory but now the barrier between these territories is fading. How is this affecting providers, employers and pension scheme trustees right now? Will the new consumer duty mean that some mastertrusts find themselves being regulated by more than one regulator? What influence could this have on the development of the pensions industry in the future? This session will bring the various strands together to look at where the collaboration between the two regulators might be heading and what impact this could have on us all.

Gareth Craft and Jack Gillions from the Linklaters Pensions team will discuss some of the key legal hurdles Trustees need to overcome, viewed through the lens of the member’s perspective and experience, on transfers to a DC master trust and when entering the decumulation phase. They will look at some of the key practical and regulatory issues faced by Trustees when giving guidance to help members navigate the options during the decumulation phase, along with the potential legal risks of introducing decumulation options into a scheme at retirement.