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When we decided to run a series of Town Halls for EBCs and pension scheme advisers this year, there were a number of reasons why it made sense.
In the post-Covid world, our industry has transformed with hybrid working and days spent mostly on Teams. Apart from big industry events such as the PLSA, the market doesn’t mingle like it used to, and that’s not a good thing.
We wanted to bring back opportunities to meet those we work with and encourage networking, problem sharing and discussions, like we all used to – only better!
We’re creating an environment where people can be relaxed and feel that they can ask us anything.
Ultimately, what we’re looking to do is build a professionals’ workplace community within the market. Rather than having one huge ‘big bang’ event for a day which can be impersonal and infrequent, we’re keeping to small groups of 25-30 people at most, with the right mix of presentations, interactive Q&A sessions and plenty of chances to network. It leads to a more personal experience at these events. These might evolve to be a little bigger, but we don’t want to lose some of the magic.
Importantly, we want to encourage the younger DC (defined contribution) professionals to come along and build their networks for the next 20 years at these Town Halls, just like I have over the years.
Having that constant tempo in the market is something people are really going to benefit from – and that’s just what they told us after the first Town Hall at the end of March. They said the ‘vibe’ was spot on and wanted to hear more views from providers like us. They enjoyed the chance to discuss, chat and get to know their peers and genuinely loved feeling part of the community.
One definite advantage of regular events means that whenever anything important happens in the market, we’ll pivot to focus on it, reacting quickly on our position, whatever the topic it might be.
Default investment launch
The first Town Hall style event launched our new default investment, and it’s undoubtedly one of the most important ones.
Our investment experts Scott Brooks and Adam Paterson explained how we’re evolving our current default, Pension Investment Approaches, to ensure all members benefit from the exciting enhancements we’re introducing with Lifetime Investment.
Advisers in the audience appreciated the clarity and thoughtful approach of the Lifetime Investment design, focusing on a clear choice framework; providing access to best-in-class fund managers through an open-architecture, large-scale, simple fund structure; and fully integrated and bespoke responsible investment approach.
Using leading sustainability fund manager Robeco’s intellectual property in the creation of bespoke ESG-tilted indices, which our new equities funds track, was called out as being unique in the market.
During the rest of the year’s events, we’ll be hearing from the likes of Pete Glancy, our Head of Policy who regularly engages with the Government and sits on various committees. He has his finger on the pulse and is brilliant at articulating where policy impacts, and what could be coming over the horizon.
We have a Lloyds Banking Group economist coming along too, as well as our digital and engagement specialists.
The next 12 months, and right through to the end of the decade, are going to look vastly different in respect of the productive finance agreement. There’s cross-party political agreement on the desire to unlock UK pension funds for investments in the UK, and the move towards mega funds but there’s a lot of ambiguity about what that really means for providers, advisers, and members.
Partnership approach
It’s important advisers really know who the people are at Scottish Widows. We want advisers to be familiar with how we work within this business and, importantly, we want our people to really understand what our advisers are facing into and what their challenges are; it’s about working in partnership.
These events demonstrate to the market that everything that we’ve done at Scottish Widows over the last few years was for the right reasons, with the right strategy.
While we didn’t know the ‘big bang’ of mega funds was coming along, our business is future proofed for it. Productive finance and the ‘megafund’ environment is going to cause a lot of consolidation in the market, of various default lifestyle investments, platforms and providers.
Putting all DC solutions onto one corporate savings platform has set us and our clients up for the future. We already have a £60 billion-plus default fund, which is evolving over the next few years into our new default Lifetime Investment which ticks the boxes of a mega fund. We’ll be further developing Lifetime Investment by introducing private market investments into the asset mix.
We’ll be providing members with a choice framework based on value and weighting to private markets, giving assurance on costs and that’s important for members.
As for the new private market funds, if they’re not selected as a default fund at scheme level, they’ll be made available as a self-select option. And of course, one of the beauties of the corporate savings platform is you can invest in multiple lifestyles and self-select, simultaneously.
With things moving at such a fast pace, there’s no shortage of things to talk about. We all want to feel like we’re part of the same team. We’ve all got the interests of our employer clients at heart as well as achieving the best outcomes for our members. That’s so important.
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