Bringing the industry together

Julian Mund previews some major events and initiatives in our centenary year.

will set the scene with her welcome address – outlining a year of change and turbulence, but also one of hope and opportunity.

On The Same Page

Welcome to the summer issue of Viewpoint magazine for 2023. We’re already halfway through the PLSA’s centenary year, and what a busy year it’s shaping up to be. This issue coincides with two of our major events – the PLSA’s Investment and Local Authority conferences. A huge amount of work goes into making these events the prime knowledge and networking destinations for members, and really captures our role in 2023 as ‘the voice of workplace pensions and savings’.

History Of Events

The PLSA has a long history of bringing the pensions industry together at regular conferences, with the first ever address to members given by Henry Lesser, OBE, a barrister and member of council for South Metropolitan Gas Company’s Pension and Insurance Funds and tagged onto the Association’s AGM in 1934. Among his comments, Lesser noted that in general the law did not then require a fund to publish accounts, submit reports to any supervising authority, or even have any actuarial valuation.

I imagine the speakers’ comments will be rather different at the PLSA’s forthcoming Investment Conference, now in its 46th year and returning to the beautiful city of Edinburgh. At the conference you’ll hear differing political standpoints from Andrew Griffith MP and former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. Professor Danny Blanchflower will explore the macroeconomic landscape, and the PLSA’s Chair Emma Douglas

The PLSA’s major conferences have become the cornerstone of networking for our members, and an opportunity to hear what your peers are thinking. Tony Broccardo, CIO at Barclays UK Retirement Fund, will join a cast of leading investment experts to share insights on how schemes have been responding to recent challenges and developments.

Focusing On Local Authority Pensions

The PLSA’s Local Authority Conference, which has been running for nearly 20 years, is a prime example of a conference built around amplifying the voices of local authority pension schemes and their advisers.

One year on from our report into the challenges and opportunities facing the LGPS, this year’s event will ask what’s changed and what still needs work to ensure the operational sustainability of the scheme.

We’re pleased to welcome speakers from across the LGPS and beyond, including David Murphy, Chief Executive of NILGOSC, on the launch of the England and Wales SAB Annual Report, and the Spectator’s Katy Balls providing her perspective on UK politics. We’ll also look at the investment outlook for schemes, communicating with employers and savers during the cost-of-living crisis, as well as what’s next on ESG, pensions dashboards, and much more.

Forums For Debate

It’s not just conferences that we have on offer in 2023. We also have a busy schedule of webinars – check out the events calendar – and new for this year we have launched a series of one-day face-to-face Forums geared towards networking and discussion. There’s a write-up of what you missed at the Trustee Forum in this issue of Viewpoint

Ensuring that our members’ views are heard by the people that matter is at the heart of what we do at the PLSA. It has been an exceptionally busy start to the year talking to ministers and policymakers on members’ behalf, and we are delighted that the government is backing Jonathan Gullis’ Private Member’s Bill, extending automatic enrolment to age 18 and from the first pound of earnings – as advocated in our report Five Steps to Better Pensions, and central to our mission of helping everyone achieve a better income in retirement.

The PLSA’s Five Steps to Better Pensions consultation has now closed, and you can read more about the PLSA’s next steps and progress in this issue.

You can also read about our call for government, regulators and the pensions industry to adopt the PLSA’s Guided Retirement Income Choices (GRIC), to help all savers get fuller support from their schemes and providers in decumulation.

Issues That Matter Most

In our response to The Pensions Regulator’s consultation on its draft DB Funding Code, we have put members’ views front and centre. There is a preview of the panel session on this topic at Investment Conference in this issue. We also showcase some of our stewardship work to date, including the annually updated PLSA’s Stewardship and Voting Guidelines 2023, published for members just ahead of this year’s AGM season, as well as casting an eye on what’s coming down the track.

So, whether you are interested in attending our events or the latest in pensions policy, this issue of Viewpoint has something for everyone.

Best wishes,

Julian Mund

IN 2023 WE’RE CELEBRATING 100 YEARS AS THE VOICE OF WORKPLACE PENSIONS

READ ABOUT THE FASCINATING BEGINNINGS OF THE PLSA: ON OUR WEBSITE OR IN VIEWPOINT

CELEBRATE WITH US AT THE PLSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2023