The Professional Investment Podcast

Heather Coulson, head of portfolio management and implementation at Scottish Widows, is our guest for the fiftieth episode of The Professional Investment Podcast!

She chose Professional Pensions’ story about DC scheme savers lacking information to make retirement decisions as her news story of the week.

It’s not surprising scheme members are flummoxed about retirement. Managing your investment and longevity risk as an individual is a complex undertaking. Given these challenges, the government now requires schemes to provide a default retirement income.

Heather said one of the key challenges facing providers is the lack of information about each member’s other pension pots and their financial circumstances. The pension dashboard should help to fill in some of these gaps.

We discussed how AI and technology will make it easier for providers to personalise pensions.

This should help the schemes to gain more information about their members and improve their ability to offer them the right retirement income product for their circumstances.

Heather talked about how Scottish Widows is expanding its investment universe by adding private market assets to their portfolios via an LTAF. This includes two types of private asset funds – one for building wealth and one for retirement. The proportion invested in each varies during the lifetime of a member.

Scottish Widows is also exploring a broad variety of different fixed income investments for this part of the member’s journey.

The provider is also thinking of how it can work with its Lloyds Banking parent to include financing small businesses in its investment universe. This coupled with venture capital and private equity financing would help British businesses to grow.

Finally, Heather talked about what Scottish Widows looks for when working with third-party asset managers. She explained how vital it was to have a partner who you trusted and would pull out the stops when needed.

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ABOUT THE GUEST:

Heather joined Scottish Widows Investment Office in February 2024. As Head of Portfolio Management & Implementation, Heather is responsible for the management of £170bn of policyholder funds and the selection, governance, and oversight of asset managers.

Heather was previously Head of Global Asset Allocation at Aberdeen, with more than a decade spent as a multi-asset manager focused on institutional mandates including bespoke solutions. Prior to her time spent in multi-asset, Heather was fixed income credit analyst at SWIP and an equity analyst at Baillie Gifford where she started her career.

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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/

#PensionsPodcast #ValueForMoney #PrivateMarkets #DCPensions #ScottishWidows

Martin Willis, director at Howden, is the latest guest for The Professional Investment Podcast. He is also a member of the Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) DC Committee and Chair of the SPP’s Self-employment Working Group.

He chose is Pension Age’s story ‘Industry urged to rethink how it helps self-employed save for retirement as his news story of the week.

This article was promoted by a paper produced by the SPP, ‘The Missing Millions: Rethinking Pension Policy for the Self-employed’.

It asks how the UK can design systems which reflect the realities of working life today, including for sole traders and micro businesses with no staff other than the owners.

We discuss how the success of auto-enrolment means pension provision among the employed has soared to around 80% while only 4% of the self-employed are setting aside money for retirement.

Unlike the employed, the self-employed have no -one to select a pension provider for them or to make contributions.

We talked about the importance of the government harnessing the behavioural lessons of auto-enrolment for the self-employed.

Possible policy solutions include using HMRC to communicate the benefits of a pension and whether the government should include incentives, such as tax breaks or contributions, to persuade people to save.

As we are The Professional Investment Podcast, we also discussed how this could also fit with the government’s agenda to invest in the UK. Pension savings from small businesses could be reinvested in UK productive finance providing a source of capital for those firms.

That would require some thought as to how pension schemes could provide financing to either venture capital or bank loans to these micro businesses.

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Leads advice and consultancy support to employers in relation to their workplace benefit arrangements from defined contribution (DC) pension arrangements to management analytics.

Supports a range of charitable and not-for profit organisations operating in the Education, Arts & Culture, and Religious sectors and has developed propositions to cater for their specific needs.

Has spoken at a variety of industry seminars focusing on defined contribution pension issues, including ones run by the Personal Finance Society, the Investment and Life Assurance Group and the National Association of Pension Funds. He has chaired the Society of Pension Professionals' DC Committee and given evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee as an industry expert.

#PensionsPodcast #ValueForMoney #PrivateMarkets #DCPensions #ScottishWidows

Ciaran Mulligan, CIO of M&G Life, is our guest on the latest episode of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose Professional Pensions’ story that insurers invest £22.8bn in UK productive assets since pledge in 2024 as his news story of the week.

Investing in the UK must meet M&G Life’s fiduciary duty. When the right assets can be found, these assets not only provide the returns required but can also improve the economy and society.

Ciaran explained he runs two books of business – a with-profits fund as well as an annuity book. These can be invested in different ways. The with-profits book has less stringent requirements than the life business.

M&G has long history of investing in real assets and allocates to both infrastructure and real estate. While most are fixed income investments, there are some equity assets too.

The firm’s asset management arm facilitates many of those investments, but the life business also works with third-party managers.

Ciaran talked in detail about two investments in M&G’s portfolio – Durham-based Pragmatic Semiconductor as well as Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre.

Investing in tangible assets like these is helpful in building trust with life and with-profit beneficiaries, he added.

Finally, we discussed how M&G Life invests to ensure the worst climate-change and AI predictions don’t come to fruition."

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Ciaran Mulligan is Chief Investment Officer for M&G Life and responsible for the 80 strong Life Investment Office (LIO) and the management of over £159bn of assets on behalf of our Life Company.

His remit spans strategic asset allocation, manager selection, mandate design, product design and ensuring that LIO delivers robust long term investment outcomes for our clients.

Ciaran has been with the Life Investment Office for over ten years, having first joined M&G in 2015 as Head of Manager Oversight. Before joining M&G, he worked as an investment consultant to UK pension schemes and as a Fund of Funds portfolio manager. His earlier career included senior research and portfolio management roles at Buck Consultants and Investment Solutions, where he led global research and managed fixed income strategies

#PensionsPodcast #ValueForMoney #PrivateMarkets #DCPensions #ScottishWidows

Mithesh Varsani, head of investment solutions at Scottish Widows, is our guest for the first episode of series seven of The Professional Investment Podcast.

He chose MandateWire’s ‘Are Australia’s pension funds stuck in a performance testing loop?’ as his news story of the week.

This article raises interesting questions for UK policy makers as they put together the value for money framework. This will operate a traffic-light system based on how a scheme performs.

There are questions as to whether such a performance metric should be a permanent feature or retired after an initial period to allow weak performers to be weeded out. This would give greater flexibility to the remaining schemes.

We talked about how different parts of The Pension Scheme Act will influence industry behaviour.

Will the scale requirements push scheme to embrace more low-cost investments to win market share? And will this work against value for money which aims to improve net returns?

Another key policy initiative is to encourage pension schemes to invest more in UK productive finance. But if VFM encourages investment herding, this might act against allocating to private assets.

Like other DC providers, Scottish Widows is grappling with the need to provide members with a retirement income.

The final part of our discussion focused on what private assets could be incorporated at this part of the member journey to allow them to remain invested in growth.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Series 7 with Mithesh Varsani

00:51 News of the Week, Australia's Performance Testing Loop

04:53 UK Policy Lessons, Value for Money and Pension Reform

09:04 The Traffic Light Risk, Avoiding a Vanilla Market

13:06 Balancing Scale with Genuine Member Value

16:18 From Policy to Portfolio, Investment Strategy in Practice

20:48 Private Markets, Building the To and Through Glide Path

28:17 New Frontiers, Liquid Alternatives and Diversification

Mithesh joined Scottish Widows in January 2025, as Head of Investment Solutions, focused on understanding evolving customer needs across our Workplace, Advised and D2C channels engaging with market participants, translating these into outcomes to develop innovative investment solutions. He joined from Mobius Life, where, as Chief Investment Officer, he spent 15 years playing an instrumental role in building an innovative, market-leading business, focused on bespoke investment solutions for a broad range of investors. 

Mithesh brings a breadth of expertise across strategic research, asset allocation, and portfolio management, combined with deep experience in designing and implementing sophisticated investment strategies. He is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with a First Class Honours in Mathematics with Economics. He has a strong track record of understanding client needs and partnering with asset managers and stakeholders to address complex investment challenges, delivering solutions that drive better outcomes and create long-term value. A proven innovator in both the DB and DC marketplace, Mithesh has led the development of industry-firsts spanning from structured derivative solutions, private markets to sustainable assets.

#PensionsPodcast #ValueForMoney #PrivateMarkets #DCPensions #ScottishWidows

Watch or listen to the best of series six of The Professional Investment Podcast. This series we cover how the insurance industry will invest the forecast £550bn it will receive from closed DB schemes. We have a guide to the Pension Schemes Bill as well as how to reshape the regulator. Portfolio construction is unpacked including how to improve longevity and the advantages of dynamic debt allocation. We explore whether schemes can suffer from diseconomies of scale. Finally, we talk about how to tackle climate change risk effectively.

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

Naomi Clark, head of product management for USSIM, is our latest guest on The Professional Investment Podcast. She chose the FT’s story that wild temperature swings are becoming the new normal as her news story of the week.

Naomi explains how even small temperature variability will create big challenges not only for our health but also for the economy. She noted that article’s emphasis on the economic impacts of climate change echo the concerns of USS.

She explains the scheme recently worked with the University of Exeter to produce different climate scenarios which highlighted both the economic damage of climate change and the benefits of action.

This work led USS to pursue an agenda of systemic change – working with other asset managers to build alliances to lobby the UK government for policy change.

But it’s not enough to make domestic changes – even if the UK had the most forward-thinking climate change policy, the world would still burn without global action.

That’s why Naomi was recently in Singapore to meet with internation asset owners and persuade them to lobby their governments for change.

We discussed how company engagement remains important even if USS has recognised systemic change will really move the dial. And that portfolio diversification is also important, especially for a universal asset owner.

Finally, Naomi asked other asset owners to work with USS to bring about the systemic climate change we need. Now is the time to be bold, she said.

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ABOUT THE GUEST:

Naomi has responsibility for oversight and implementation of investments USSIM, including the selection and implementation of external and internal managers and mandates, the implementation of the defined contribution product, and the implementation of responsible investment. Additionally, Naomi has shared responsibility for Investment Advice provided to the trustee.

Naomi joined USSIM from JP Morgan as Business Development Manager running front office projects across the scheme, she subsequently became the LDI & Treasury Manager, with responsibility for the external LDI mandate. Following that Naomi focused on strategy solutions provision for the scheme within the Strategy Co-ordination team, helping to implement the scheme’s Reference Portfolio before taking responsibility for the design and implementation of the new DC Product.

Naomi graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in English Literature and subsequently gained a first-class degree in Finance from Oxford Brookes University, additionally holding the ACCA & IMC qualifications.

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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 and DC Megafunds Debate

04:00 Scale, Diseconomies, and UK Productive Finance

08:00 Fund of Funds, Private Equity Routes, and Fee Management

11:30 Co-Investment, Secondaries, and Private Asset Classes

15:00 Internal vs External Investment Management

19:30 Green Infrastructure and Renewable Energy Investment

23:00 Sustainability, Net Zero Targets, and Climate Pragmatism

26:30 Policy, Industry Reactivity, and Closing Thoughts

#EnergyTransition #ClimateRisk #PensionInvesting #ESGInvesting

James Lawrence, CIO of Smart Pension, is our guest for episode six of series six of The Profession Investment Podcast. He chose Professional Pensions story that there’s no guarantee DC megafunds will lead to higher returns.

We discuss how there is currently a tendency to think bigger is always better in pensions schemes. But any investment professional knows size can also hinder investment returns – there are good reasons asset managers gate funds at certain sizes.

If asset owners want to invest in smaller companies and smaller asset managers, one solution is to build third-party fund of funds who can select those specialist asset managers.

Fees are obviously an important consideration in this scenario as private assets are already more expensive and fund of funds add an extra layer of fees. Kept a lid on these costs is vital.

James unpacked the different ways asset owners can invest in private equity and the different pros and cons of primary and secondary investing as well as co-investing.

We broadened the discussion to different types of private assets and where they belong in a DC portfolio before diving into a debate about whether asset owners should be thinking about building internal teams to invest in private assets or use third-party asset managers.

We discussed the resources and time needed to build an internal team and whether this would ever be as effective as an asset manager given asset owners can pay less and don’t have the same track record.

Finally, James talked about how Smart Pension is investing in green infrastructure which led us to debate how sustainable investing and net zero is evolving.

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ABOUT THE GUEST:

James has over 12 years' experience in the pensions industry, mainly in consulting and investment management. At Smart Pension, James is the Chief Investment Officer and responsible for building and overseeing the investment solution. Prior to joining Smart James worked at Mercer, managing the investment proposition for Mercer Workplace Savings in the UK DC workplace delegated business.

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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 and DC Megafunds Debate

04:00 Scale, Diseconomies, and UK Productive Finance

08:00 Fund of Funds, Private Equity Routes, and Fee Management

11:30 Co-Investment, Secondaries, and Private Asset Classes

15:00 Internal vs External Investment Management

19:30 Green Infrastructure and Renewable Energy Investment

23:00 Sustainability, Net Zero Targets, and Climate Pragmatism

26:30 Policy, Industry Reactivity, and Closing Thoughts

#PensionProtectionFund

#UKPensions

#PensionsPolicy

#RetirementIncome

#ProfessionalInvestment

Charlotte Vincent, co-head of fixed income at People’s Pension, is the latest guest on The Professional Investment Podcast. She chose the FT’s story that the Iran war inflation shock is set to fall short of the 2022 surge.

Charlotte explains she is always looking at inflation and its impact on fixed income assets as it is important to generate real returns for scheme members to ensure they have a good retirement.

We discussed People’s Pension’s approach to fixed income and how they choose to make their portfolio dynamic when they appointed Invesco as their fixed income manager in February last year.

Charlotte unpacks how the fund can change multiple aspects of the fixed income portfolio including the regional exposure, the duration of the portfolio, the mix between sovereigns and corporate.

She talks about the benefits of their £250m collateralised-loan obligation portfolio and how helpful the floating rates have been in this very volatile fixed income environment.

People’s recently split out the fixed income portfolio for its members in the growth part of their journey and those in the pre-retirement part of the journey. That has allowed them to tailor the fixed income investments to the very different requirements of these two cohorts.

Finally, the two Charlottes discussed who will be the future buyers of UK gilts as closed defined benefit pensions wind down. Chalotte Vincent mentions a recent FT Alphaville article which suggested issuing more short-dated government debt.

We finished our discussion pointing out the growing demand for global credit from both insurers and auto-enrolled workplace schemes and asked what can be done to encourage both the UK and European markets to increased fixed income securitisation.

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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.

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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 Welcome and This Week's News Story

00:54 Why Real Returns Matter for Members

02:27 A Dynamic Approach to Fixed Income

05:05 CLOs and the Case for AAA

09:57 Splitting Growth and Pre-Retirement

14:23 Cutting Duration and Sovereign Debt

17:25 The Decline of DB and the Gilt Market

23:54 Private Credit, Global Credit and Europe

#PensionProtectionFund#UKPensions#PensionsPolicy#RetirementIncome#ProfessionalInvestment

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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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