As DC schemes take on greater responsibility for member outcomes, retirement has become a critical, and challenging, decision point. With growing complexity, schemes are being asked to do more to support members without crossing regulatory boundaries.

This session explores how default retirement solutions and the FCA’s targeted support framework can work together to improve decision-making at retirement. It focuses on practical implementation, looking at how schemes segment members, design and govern retirement pathways and provide structured support that helps members make better choices while remaining firmly within fiduciary and regulatory limits.

This session will address:

• Why retirement remains a weak point in DC member outcomes
• What FCA targeted support allows schemes to do at retirement — and where limits remain
• How default retirement pathways can be designed to support disengaged members
• Using data and segmentation to guide retirement decisions at scale
• Governance, oversight and evidencing decisions
• Where advice still fits, and how schemes manage hand-offs for complex cases
  

Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) schemes are gaining momentum across Europe as markets look for models that blend DB style risk sharing with the transparency and sustainability of DC. In the UK, expanding regulation is driving renewed adoption, while countries like the Netherlands and Germany are advancing their own forms of collective and hybrid DC. Views remain divided: some question CDC’s added value given complexity, while others highlight its ability to smooth outcomes, pool longevity risk, and support more efficient investment—appealing advantages in the face of demographic pressures and rising expectations for retirement security.

This session will explore:

• Regulatory developments shaping CDC adoption across the UK and Europe
• Comparative design features spanning collective, hybrid, and pure DC models
• Implications for investment strategy, retirement outcomes, and broader capital market engagement
• Industry sentiment and practical barriers, including commercial viability and member expectations

As the Value for Money framework (VFM) continues through consultation, DC schemes are beginning to consider what it may mean for how value is assessed, compared and discussed. While the framework is still evolving, schemes are already engaging with its underlying themes, including outcomes, cost and service quality, and examining how these factors might be balanced in practice.

This session explores how schemes are approaching the VFM at this stage, focusing on emerging approaches rather than fixed outcomes. It examines the practical considerations trustees are weighing, the questions the framework raises around cost and value and the characteristics of approaches that are beginning to be viewed as good practice, as schemes prepare for the framework’s finalisation.

This session will address:

• What the proposed VFM framework is seeking to measure
• How schemes are interpreting value beyond cost
• Balancing cost, performance and service quality in practice
• Practical challenges in comparing value across DC schemes
• How scale and governance may influence value assessments
• Emerging indicators of good practice

Private markets can play a valuable role in long-term portfolios, but they require a different approach to thinking about governance, liquidity and risk. This session is designed to help trustees and scheme decision-makers understand what “being ready” for private markets really means in practice.

The discussion will explore how governance provides the foundation for engaging with less liquid assets, how liquidity considerations shape portfolio construction and risk oversight and the structural considerations when translating strategy into implementation. Gain clarity and confidence, to enable your scheme to engage with and harness the opportunities of private markets.

This session will address:

• Why strong governance is the foundation of successful private market investing, and how governance capabilities evolve as portfolios move towards less liquid assets
• How trustees can plan for longer investment horizons, constrained exits and changing cashflow profiles
• How risk management approaches adapt in a private market context, including liquidity stress testing, valuation oversight and alignment with cashflow-driven investing
• The specific structural considerations for DC schemes (i.e. daily pricing, liquidity, easy rebalancing) – and how vehicles like LTAFs are being used to help manage these constraints

Through the Mansion House accords and the governments push towards productive finance DC schemes are increasingly positioned as long-term investors with a potential role in supporting UK growth. Alongside this, trustees are being asked to consider how UK investment can be justified within existing fiduciary frameworks.

This session explores the productive finance push, examining how policy ambitions are reshaping expectations of pension capital and translating into practical considerations for scheme design and objectives. It explores the case for productive finance based on reasonable, member-focused investment, where investing in the UK can be aligned with member outcomes, scheme objectives and long-term value.

This session will address:

• Policy objectives behind the Mansion House Accords and why pension capital has moved to the centre of the productive finance agenda
• The growing tension between political ambition and fiduciary duty
• The argument for productive finance grounded in members’ best interests, rather than political direction
• Potential structural barriers to the productive finance push
• What can be expected for the future direction of pensions positioning within the UK’s growth plan