Professional Pensions Live 2026 - Programme

Welcome to Professional Pensions Live 2025.

The pensions industry is operating amid ongoing regulatory and legislative change. As reforms continue to develop, pension professionals must navigate evolving requirements while maintaining effective governance and a focus on member outcomes.

This opening keynote provides an update on the current pensions landscape, outlining the progress of key regulatory and legislative developments and the themes emerging across recent policy activity. It will consider what these developments mean in practice for schemes as they plan and make decisions.

This session will address:

• A regulatory update on the pensions landscape
• The status of key legislative and policy developments
• Emerging themes relevant to trustees and employers
• What can the industry expect to see in the future
• Address concerns and queries regarding upcoming regulation

As sustainability and net-zero commitments become embedded across all industries, the key question for pensions is how meaningful progress is delivered in practice. This has created a growing need to rethink how sustainable investment is framed, applied and communicated.

This panel explores the real role pension schemes play in the global push toward sustainability and net zero. It examines where pension funds can exert genuine influence through capital allocation and stewardship, where responsibility sits elsewhere, and how ESG goals are being translated into real investment and business decisions.

Private Markets are high on the pension’s agenda, with the question shifting from whether to allocate to how to do it well while maintaining both fiduciary duty and member value.

This session looks at the design of a successful private markets portfolio, examining liquidity management, diversification and governance. It also aims to address the UK angle, including where opportunities exist and are sufficiently credible and investable

This session will address:

• What do successful private markets portfolios have in common?
• Portfolio construction and diversification across asset classes
• Managing liquidity and cashflows when including private markets in DC default funds
• Governance and due diligence
• UK Private market opportunities

Time for the morning networking break. Grab a coffee & refreshment, network with your industry peers and explore the exhibition hall.

Time for the afternoon networking break. Grab a coffee & refreshment, network with your industry peers and explore the exhibition hall.

The pensions industry is undergoing extensive change, and navigating the next phase will require clear thinking amid shifting regulation, evolving endgame strategies, consolidation and rising expectations around governance and member outcomes.

This panel may not have a crystal ball, but it does bring together our pension prophets — an expert group of industry leaders discussing the emerging pressures, opportunities and longer-term shifts facing schemes, trustees and the wider industry. They will explore the themes most likely to shape the industry’s future, and the changes anticipated in how pensions are designed, governed and delivered.

We are delighted to welcome Sir Richard Shirreff former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and one of the UK’s foremost geo-strategic thinkers as our Closing Keynote Speaker.

In a world marked by geopolitical instability, Sir Richard brings a front-line perspective on how global power dynamics are shifting and why they matter. Drawing on decades of experience at the heart of international defence, he will explore how great-power rivalry, fragile alliances and escalating security risks are reshaping the global landscape. For a powerful big-picture close to PP Live, we will be reminded why understanding geopolitics is no longer optional, but essential, for long-term decision-making.

Thank you for joining us for another fantastic year of Professional Pensions Live. Safe travels!

Thank you for joining and please join us for a drink!