There is much talk in our industry about getting DB schemes buy-out ready, but many are still a distant away from being fully funded on a buy-out basis. Those schemes and their sponsors still face many headwinds, third party capital and capital backed journey plans are emerging as useful tools to mitigate these risks.

This session will address:

• How third-party capital fits into the pension framework
• Brief outline of Punter Southall’s capital backed journey plan – the Pension Safeguard Solution
• Worked example of how the Pension Safeguard Solution supports a scheme and its sponsor

In November 2023 Clara-Pensions reached agreement with Trustees of the Sears Retail Pension Scheme to transfer members to Clara in the UK’s first pension superfund transaction. Sears’ 9,600 Scheme members became the first to enter a UK pension Superfund as they began their journey to an insured buyout. Clara provided £30m of new capital to increase the security of the Sears members’ benefits. This was closely followed by a further transaction in April 2024 when Clara reached agreement with Trustees of the Debenhams Retirement Scheme to transfer their 10,400 Scheme members ,and Clara provided a further £34m of new capital to support this transaction.

In this session, Richard and Jayne will address:

• The transaction process.
• How this improved outcomes for these members.

As we are all very aware, the DB de-risking market is the busiest it’s ever been and is predicted to accelerate further. When the market gets busy insurers can make greater demands on schemes.

The session will address:

• What is the motivation behind this and what would be classed as reasonable?
• What could a scheme consider pushing back on?
• How insurers’ bulk annuity propositions are likely to evolve over the medium term

Sustainability is not new. This session looks at the journey of sustainability in pensions from being the fundamental basis of retirement provision to the complexities it brings in today’s world for asset owners, scheme sponsors and members.

This session will explain where we’re at and seek to reduce confusion about what sustainability means by addressing:

• The role sustainability plays in pensions at every level
• How sustainability principles in pensions can meaningfully be linked to UN Strategic Development Goals (SDGs)
• How pension funds can achieve sustainability with purpose
• Practical tips on how you walk the sustainability walk, not just talk the talk

In January 2024, the pension surplus reached a record £265bn, a £100bn increase in a year. Despite the DWP releasing the final Occupational Pension Schemes Regulations, alongside unprecedented funding levels in recent months, concerns linger that the DB funding regulations missed the chance to provide clarity for schemes with surpluses.

This session will address:

• The economic opportunity and potential risks of maintaining status quo.
• Evolving the regulatory landscape to ensure member security.
• Investment strategy implications: managing all risks and allowing capital to do more.

Connection-ready means being 95% prepared to connect to the PDP ecosystem, which must happen for schemes between late 2024 and October 2026. Additionally, schemes must meet dashboard duties post connection, data matching, view requests at scale, report on data coverage rates, and be running on its integrated service provider. It is ultimately the responsibility of trustees to get data matching processes in order. If trustees address these challenges now, they will benefit from cost and time savings once dashboards are launched.

This session will address:

• PDP's latest updates
• Industry expectations for the future
• Addressing concerns and questions regarding the pension’s dashboard