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 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

This session builds directly on the consolidation, concentration and competition narrative shaping today’s DC landscape, using the investment playbook of a £100bn DC master trust to explore how — and when — pension capital can genuinely support UK growth.

As DC schemes consolidate and scale, they are increasingly being positioned as long‑term investors with the capability to invest differently. Against the backdrop of the Mansion House Accords and the productive finance agenda, this session examines what scale unlocks in practice — and how UK investment becomes part of a broader, member‑focused investment strategy rather than a political objective in its own right. Using lessons from large global pools of capital and the UK’s own consolidation journey, the session focuses on how productive finance fits within existing fiduciary frameworks, governance structures and investment objectives — and where real constraints still exist.

The emphasis throughout is on outcomes, capability, and good investment decision‑making, rather than prescriptive asset allocation.

This session will address:

• Why consolidation and scale are central to the productive finance debate — and what changes once schemes reach critical mass
• The policy objectives behind the Mansion House Accords, set within the wider context of DC consolidation and long‑term capital
• How competition between large schemes shapes investment strategy, governance and willingness to invest in less liquid assets
• The perceived tension between political ambition and fiduciary duty — and how that tension shifts at scale
• The case for investing in the UK grounded in member outcomes, risk‑adjusted returns and long‑term value
• Structural and practical barriers that still limit productive finance, even for large DC schemes
• What the future direction of DC investment could look like as schemes move beyond consolidation into maturity

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

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