Reshaping the regulator with Calum Cooper, head of pensions policy innovation at Hymans Robertson

Reshaping the regulator with Calum Cooper, head of pensions policy innovation at Hymans Robertson

In this week’s episode of The Professional Investment Podcast, Calum Cooper, head of pensions policy innovation at Hymans Robertson, joins the show. We discuss Professional Pensions story that The Pensions Regulator is conducting its latest five-year review of its corporate strategy. The regulator said its mission is to protect workplace pensions members' money, enhance the pensions system and support innovation in members' interests. The consultation lasts until 8 June. Calum said this represents a change in strategy away from a regulator concerned with the health of individual schemes and more towards a prudential authority. This reflects the strong funding levels in the industry allowing for this different focus. The TPR’s strategic shift raises the question of how it will interact with the Financial Conduct Authority in the future. Many in the pensions industry would prefer to only work with one regulator. We discuss whether the introduction of retirement income will lead to a focus on longevity as a potential asset class as pension providers look to collectivise this risk for members. Calum discusses the different ways this risk can be managed including annuities. We also discuss another news story questioning how the Pension Protection Fund should be treating its reserves, which are currently £14bn. Calum outlines what options could be explored to expand the investment options while also ensuring the PPF continues in its lifeboat role. Finally, we ponder whether bigger is always better in investment and how £100bn pension schemes can still invest in innovative asset classes. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Calum Cooper joined Hymans Robertson in 2003 as a graduate with degrees in software engineering and finance. He qualified in 2007, became a partner in 2011 and led our growing Trustee actuarial, investment and administration business for four years. These days he’s an owning partner sharing broad and unique pensions strategy, risk and digital expertise to clients to over £10bn. Calum brings a collaborative and creative approach to advice. Always with a focus on making progress against clear and shared long-term objectives. He has chaired our investment consulting leadership team and nowadays with responsibility for Pensions Policy he is a spokesperson for Hymans Robertson. Outside of work he is an enthusiastic cyclist and runner, rusty guitarist and a family man with two energetic boys Harris and Quin. ⸻ ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement. 🔗 https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to the Professional Investment Podcast 0:43 This Week's News Story: TPR Launches New Corporate Strategy 2:06 From Safety Net to Outcomes: The Regulator's Big Shift in Tone 3:57 What TPR's New Direction Means for Investment Product Manufacturers 6:39 Longevity as an Asset Class: CDC, Annuities and Pooled Solutions 9:18 The Pension Protection Fund's £14 Billion Surplus Problem 13:40 Should the PPF Get a New Mandate? Investing for Society 17:00 Nationalisation Risk, Government Temptation and Squaring the Circle 20:35 Infrastructure Partnerships: Pension Capital Working Together 23:51 A Bold Idea: Transforming the PPF into a CDC Growth Vehicle 26:37 Where Should TPR Be in 2031? A Vision for the Next Five Years 28:05 Open Finance, Agentic AI and the Future of Pension Regulation 30:04 Mega Funds, Value for Money and the Risk of Investment Herding 33:42 Final Thoughts and Sign Off #PensionProtectionFund #UKPensions #PensionsPolicy

Improving longevity with pension pots – with Maiyuresh Rajah, director of investments at Aviva

Maiyuresh Rajah, director of investments at Aviva, is this week’s guest on The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose Pension Age’s story about TPR outlining its vision for megafunds and simplified pensions market by 2036 as his news story of the week. Now the debate about pension schemes investing in private assets has been settled, providers are starting to put their private asset allocations in place. Mai discusses the approach Aviva is taking to its private asset allocation – which using a multi-asset approach including third-party managers as well as Aviva Investors. While pension providers are taking many different approaches to investing in private assets, this may diminish over time as the sector consolidates. There is a concern it will become harder for pension providers to allocate capital to smaller managers as the assets under management become larger. Mai suggested said smaller asset managers need to build strategic partnerships throughout the investment chain – both with larger private asset managers and with asset owners. We unpacked how the contractual over-ride in the Pensions Scheme Act will allow insurers like Aviva to shift members of legacy schemes to better pension provision. Mai also outlined how Aviva is building a retirement income for members so they can access drawdown earlier on and then ensure there is an annuity to provide an income for life. Finally we talked about the private asset investment opportunities – such as allocating to healthcare companies – which Mai feels excited about. There is a nice symmetry to improving later life and longevity by investing for retirement, he added. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Maiyuresh Rajah, Director of Investments at Aviva Mai is responsible for all investment activity across Aviva’s Wealth business, which includes strategy, proposition development, investment governance and asset transitions across the workplace and retail pension businesses. He has over twenty years' experience in the pensions industry and has held senior roles in investment consulting, asset management, investment proposition and business development. Mai is passionate about delivering innovative investment propositions so that people can invest sustainably for their futures and meet their financial goals. He is also a Scheme Strategist for the Aviva Master Trust and works closely with the Trustees of the Master Trust. ⸻ ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement. 🔗 https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Maiyuresh Rajah of Aviva 00:44 TPR’s vision for megafunds and pension reform by 2036 03:02 Why private assets are now central to DC pension investing 04:11 Aviva’s private market allocation strategy 06:18 Different approaches to investing in private markets 08:36 Why multi-manager private market strategies matter 11:21 Pension consolidation, megafunds and the risk of losing innovation 14:00 How smaller asset managers can stay relevant 17:35 Contractual override and improving legacy pension schemes 20:53 Building better retirement income solutions for pension members 24:50 Drawdown, annuities and income for life 27:24 Investing in healthcare, longevity and later life outcomes 30:00 How the Pension Schemes Act could improve retirement outcomes 31:42 Final thoughts and closing remarks #Pensions #PrivateMarkets #RetirementIncome #PensionReform #Aviva

Everything you need to know about the Pension Schemes Act – with Steve Webb, partner at LCP

This week’s guest on The Professional Investment Podcast is Steve Webb, ex-pensions minister and partner at LCP. He chose the FT’s story that UK ministers gain powers to force pension funds to invest in British companies. After ping-ponging between the House of Commons and Lords, last week the Pensions Scheme Bill became the Pensions Scheme Act. With the industry concerned about the government’s ability to force pension schemes to invest in the UK, Steve explains what powers the Act contains. Steve also explains the next stages for the act and how more consultations are likely to follow as policy makers put in place the regulations and statutory instruments needed to create to turn the act into legislation. While the Pensions Scheme Act is wide-ranging, it doesn’t address any changes to the state pension age even though a review is happening. Steve explained that’s because the government does not want any chance of taking WASPI women’s claims into account and having to make a big pay-out. The Act will have wide-ranging consequences for how pension schemes invest whether they are closed or open defined benefit schemes as well as auto-enrolled pension schemes. Steve welcomes the new rules which will allow providers of contract-based legacy DC schemes to shift these members into lower cost and more effective investment funds. He also highlighted the proposals which will allow DB schemes with surpluses to invest those funds. But he did highlight his concerns about the introduction of the value-for-money framework which, in combination with the consolidation of DC schemes could result in a more boring investment universe in the future with pension providers clustering around the same portfolio design. Finally, we discussed how the government could address the lack of pension provision among the self-employed which has been declining rapidly. Steve said it made sense to use HMRC as the common touchpoint of all self-employed people and for the government to incentivise investment by providing a lump sum which is promoted by Martin Lewis. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Steve Webb, Partner, LCP Steve Webb was Minister of State for Pensions between 2010 and 2015. During that time, he implemented major reforms to the state pension system, oversaw the successful introduction of automatic enrolment and played a key role in the new pension freedoms implemented in April 2015. He was awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s honours in 2017. Following his time in Parliament he worked for Royal London for four years before joining LCP as a partner in 2020, where he has campaigned successfully to secure an estimated £1 billion in back payments for over 100,000 women who had been underpaid state pensions. More recently he has been working on proposals for reform of the DB funding system and on innovative ideas for decumulation in DC pensions. ⸻ ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. 🔗 https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Steve Webb and the Pension Schemes Act 02:06 Government Powers, Private Markets and UK Pension Investment 04:03 Mansion House Targets and the 2030 Investment Deadline 06:13 Why the Detail of Secondary Legislation Matters 09:15 State Pension Age, Longevity and Fairness 13:15 What the Pension Schemes Act Means for Investors 15:15 DB Surplus Extraction and Better Member Outcomes 17:12 Collective Defined Contribution Schemes Explained 20:20 Value for Money, League Tables and Performance Pressure 24:20 Pension Saving for the Self-Employed #ProfessionalInvestmentPodcast #SteveWebb #UKPensions #PensionReform #RetirementPlanning

How to invest £550bn – with Hartej Singh, head of public credit at the Pension Insurance Corporation

Hartej Singh, head of public credit at the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), is our guest for the first episode of series six of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose Professional Pensions story that defined benefit pension scheme surpluses increase to £210bn in the first quarter of 2026 as his news story of the week. While this undoubtedly a good news story after two decades of deficits, it’s important the industry doesn’t think surpluses are guaranteed forever. There are number of plausible scenarios where low bond yields could return. To avoid being caught out, pension schemes need to lock in their surpluses by removing interest-rate risk and they can then think about how they can invest that extra capital. We discussed how the investment universe of life insurance companies is constrained by regulation and long-term nature of their liabilities. Hartej explained how that pushes insurers to invest in long-term, stable cash flows in high quality companies and governments. While PIC would prefer to invest in the UK as it will be paying liabilities in sterling, it often ends investing overseas due to the lack of investment opportunities. The UK corporate bond market has not grown over the last decade. Hartej suggested the UK could look at replicating the US municipal bond market to make it easier for investors to fund our much-needed infrastructure such as homes, hospitals, transport and green infrastructure. We unpacked the innovation in fixed income markets with the edges between public and private markets blurring and how companies were starting to securitise bonds using assets which could be a good way to finance high-quality companies. Finally, we talked about how life insurance companies need to invest for many decades into the future made them think hard about finding sustainable – in both senses of the word – investments. Hartej said this led them towards green infrastructure projects. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Hartej Singh is Head of Public Credit at Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), responsible for global investment-grade public credit and Co-Chair of the Credit Committee. Previously, he co-ran Sterling Active and led on Global Buy-and-Maintain strategies at Janus Henderson after a career in structured credit (primarily at JPMorgan). He holds a BSc. having read Mathematics with Economics at UCL, an Executive MBA from London Business School, and the CFA charter. ⸻ ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement. 🔗 https://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Hartej Singh and series six 01:04 Why pension scheme surpluses are a good news story 03:02 The risk of becoming complacent about pension surpluses 05:00 Could low bond yields return? 07:05 Locking in surpluses and removing investment risk 09:19 How insurers think about long-term liabilities 11:18 Why PIC invests in long-term stable cash flows 13:22 The challenge of finding UK investment opportunities 15:30 What the UK can learn from the US municipal bond market 17:47 Funding infrastructure through the right investment ecosystem 20:04 Regulation, caution and unlocking UK capital 22:16 Investing £550bn and expanding the investable universe 24:38 Innovation in fixed income and blurring public-private markets 26:45 Securitisation, asset-backed structures and credit innovation 28:25 Sustainable investing over decades 30:44 Green infrastructure, social value and long-term outcomes 32:04 Final thoughts and closing remarks

The Best of Series Five: The Professional Investment Podcast

Watch or listen to the best of series five of The Professional Investment Podcast. This series we cover how the LGPS can help the UK to rebuild its infrastructure as well as expanding its local investment. We also discuss managing conflicts of interest and pension scheme risk. And we talk about how master trusts have dominated the DC market as well as how to manage their investment strategies. In this video are short clips from each of the seven episodes. Enjoy! ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement. 🔗 https://lotsmoore.co.uk/ #InvestmentConsulting #LGPSFunds #HymansRobertson #ResponsibleInvestment #InvestmentStrategy