Workshops
| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| Day two 10:40 - 11:40 | Workshop A |
| A1: Alternative indexation of equities - market cap or monkey?
Market capitalisation weighted indices have long been the default approach to benchmarking equities and form the basis for vast amounts of passively managed equity investments. However recent years have seen a proliferation of alternative indices claiming to offer investors superior risk-adjusted returns. Research by Cass Business School’s Centre for Asset Management Research not only supports these conclusions but also suggests that superior investment performance could also have been achieved by using equity index weights that were ‘chosen’ by monkeys throwing darts at a board! Speaker: Andrew Clare, CASS Business School
A2: The radically changing role of the actuary in scheme funding negotiations
In challenging times, the focus on the actuary in the funding negotiations has never been higher. New skills are demanded from clients, even as traditional elements of the role are commoditised. Based on recent experience, this talk explores the new challenges and how actuaries can best place themselves to retain the key adviser role. Speaker: Richard Murphy, Lane Clark and Peacock
A3: Innovative solutions to age old problems
This session will look at how trustees, sponsors and their advisors can work together to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems with funding and conflicts. The speaker will use some case studies to show how innovation works where traditional methods fail. Speaker: Ian Davies, Bridge Trustees
A4: Macroeconomics of pensions funds
This presentation looks at the role of UK pension funds on the wider economy. It considers the impact of disinvestment from the UK growth economy by final salary schemes. It also looks at the capacity of the UK insurance market to absorb historic pension scheme liabilities and the role of actuaries in the future to develop new solutions towards managing these significant blocks of assets and liabilities.
Speakers: Iain Clacher, University of Leeds and Marcus Hurd, Buck Consultants A5: Buy-ins and buyouts: What should really matter to pension schemes?
In a market where many pension scheme transactions do not make it to completion, what role do actuaries and other consultants have in avoiding cul-de-sacs which may lead to missed opportunities. Do we help pension schemes to focus on the important issues and do we give them a realistic expectation when setting objectives for transactions? Sammy Cooper-Smith and Ben Stone provide views from both the provider and pension scheme perspective about preparing for market and going through the negotiation process. Speakers: Sammy Cooper-Smith and Ben Stone, Towers Watson
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| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| Day two 12:00 - 13:00 | Workshop B |
| B1: DC investment options There has been rapid growth of defined contribution pensions in the UK, further accelerated by the introduction of employer duty regulations, requiring firms to auto- enrol employees into a suitable pension scheme with minimum contribution requirements and an appropriate default strategy. This workshop session will cover recent research in this area and how it can be applied in a consulting context, with particular focus on default strategy design, including lifestyling strategies, and the role of guarantees in DC pensions. Speaker: Professor Ian Tonks, University of Bath
B2: Update on the European Commission review of the IORP Directive Following on from EIOPA consultation, this workshop will be topical and will discuss the current state of play with regard to the EC review of the Directive, picking up issues of particular importance for UK pensions. Speaker: The Solvency II for Pensions Working Party, Celene Lee (Chair), Graham Collins, Jethro Green, Jon Hatchett and Matthew Pearlman B3: Governance – a contrarian view? This session will look at ‘best practice’ governance practices and challenge whether the focus on governance is distracting schemes from their true priorities. Speaker: Antony Miller, 2020 Trustees B4: Changed prospects for economic growth and long term actuarial assumptions This session will address the following points:
Speaker: Colin Robertson, Independent Consultant
B5: Legal developments: where are we now? This session will focus on recent legal developments and their implications for actuaries. Subjects which might still be topical may include the new money purchase definition; GMP equalisation; latest pensions tax changes; Procter & Gamble case on TUPE; small pension pots and IORP II will be addressed. Speaker: Hugh Gittins, Evershed
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| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| Day two 16:00 - 17:00 | Workshop C |
| C1: Fiduciary management - pros and cons
In recent years, trustees have increasingly been choosing fiduciary management as an appropriate vehicle for part or all of their pension scheme assets. With speakers on both sides of the fence, this session will examine the growth in fiduciary management (past growth and that expected in the future) and will ‘compare and contrast’ with more traditional forms of investment consulting. Speakers: Carl Hitchman, Hymans Robertson and Barbara Saunders, Punter Southall C2: Gaining the essential buy-in from clients Being able to present effectively will help you win and retain business, and influence in-house audiences. Gaining buy-in at the start will help set the tone for the rest of the presentation. In this interactive workshop you will learn some tips to help you capture the attention of your audience and engage them from the start, which will distinguish you from most other presenters. You will have the opportunity to practice at least one aspect during the session. Speaker: Jeremy Lazarus, The Lazarus Consultancy Ltd C3: Another objective for the Regulator – what will that mean for actuaries? The new objective for tPR requiring it to consider wider economic factors has potential to change funding negotiations and the final result of Technical Provisions. Charles Cowling considers the possible implications for actuaries as they play their role in the funding valuation process. Speakers: Charles Cowling, JLT C4: When push (pension debt) comes to shove (sponsor insolvency) The interaction of (1) heroic investment returns and risk, (2) commercial debt management issues and (3) the inevitable idiosyncrasies of each sponsor and pension scheme. When pension debts become unmanageable, the trustee options and powers, corporate reconstruction and regulatory powers and influences also need to be examined.
Speaker: Allan Martin, ACMCA Limited C5: Recent practical experiences of de-risking This session will look at recent case studies relating to buy-ins, PIE and ETV’s and one year on will examine the impact of the voluntary code on incentive exercises.
Speakers: Lalji Patel and Martin West, Capita Employee Benefits |
| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| Day three 10:30 - 11:30 | Workshop D |
| D1: Asset backed funding; is it a legal and apporpriate investment? This session will examine the following points:
Speakers: Ben McDonald, KPMG and Keith Webster, Osborne Clark D2: LDI nine years on This session will focus on:
Speakers: Rob Gardner, Redington and Simon Wilkinson, LGIM D3: Information overload – setting mortality assumptions in the modern era Today’s pensions actuaries have more information available to them about mortality than ever before. This session reviews the information available today (and what might be available in the future) and considers how this can best be used in formulating mortality assumptions. Speaker: Matt Fletcher, Towers Watson and Jonathan Hughes, Munich Re D4: Actuaries as 'financial engineers': A strategic analysis It is important for any profession to continually review and define the scope of its role and the work that it does, to ensure its continued relevance. This is particularly important for the Actuarial Profession, as its traditional roles change and disappear, and as it seeks to move into 'wider fields'. This workshop therefore examines the nature of actuarial work by considering shifts between different 'segments' of the actuarial, accounting and engineering professions over the past century. It will argue that these shifts across and within these different professions are related and that they were the consequence of changes in the setting of standards with respect to governance of organizations and capital markets. Drawing on this analysis, the workshop will argue that that the best description of the work conducted by actuaries is as 'financial engineers'. It will then explore the strategic implications for determining and marketing the role of actuaries'. Speakers: Yally Avrahampour, LSE and Derek Cribb, Chief Executive of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries D5: Sleepwalking into retirement - why DC desperately needs actuaries
Speakers: Jim Hennington, Distribution Technology and John Taylor, NEST Pensions |
| Date | Details |
|---|---|
| Day three 11:40 - 12:40 | Workshop E |
| E1: Lehman Bros - a lesson learned on financial support directions This session will cover: 1.The pitfalls of the FSD process:
The speakers will conclude with the impact and implications of the Court proceedings in relation to Lehman Bros. Speakers: Elma Doonan and Jay Doraisamy, SNR Denton E2: Back to the Future – what yesterday can tell us about tomorrow’s pensions This session will look at pension outcomes, cost and volatility of cost by applying past experience to: various:
It aims to answer questions such as:
Speaker: Mark Rowlinson, First Actuarial LLP E3: Effective employee/member communications This session will examine the psychology of financial decision making, why members make the decisions they do (or don’t). The fundamentals of effective communication – how the words we choose (and how we use them) really matter. The rise and rise of social media – how new technology is evolving ‘best practice’ in communication and why turning it off is not the answer. Speaker: Jerry Edmondson, Hymans Robertson E4: Pension infrastructure platform This session will examine the Pension Protect Fund’s Investment Strategy and why they support the Pensions Infrastructure Platform. Speaker: Alan Rubenstein, PPF E5: The Government’s State Pension reform plans This session will examine the Coalition Government’s plans for State Pension reform, in particular considering:
Speakers: Melissa Echalier, Daniel Redwood, Pensions Policy Institute
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