Agenda

09.00 – 09.30: Access to conference open

09.30 – 09.35: Chair’s welcome
Laura Blows, Editor, Pensions Age

09.35 – 10.00: OPENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Update from The Pensions Regulator (TPR)
David Fairs, Executive Director of Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice, The Pensions Regulator (TPR)

David Fairs will offer delegates an update from The Pensions Regulator (TPR), covering the latest guidance for schemes during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as take a longer-term look at some of the regulator’s priorities.

10.00 – 10.30: Inertia of auto-enrolment to responsibility for pension freedom decisions – how do we engage and empower employees to take positive steps to a better future?
Donna Walsh, Head of Proposition Deployment, Standard Life

Employees have very different needs throughout the stages of their life, so a one size fits all communications approach will not work. Timely and relevant communications are needed, using relevant communications channels. With an increase in digital demand, how is Covid-19 impacting engagement levels and how will strategies need to adapt?

10.30 – 10.40: Comfort break

10.40 – 11.10: Integrating climate-related financial risks
Adam Lees CFA, Institutional & Consultant Relations, Sarasin and Partners
Ben McEwen, Climate Change Investment Analyst, Sarasin and Partners

2019 was a monumental year for integrating sustainability into the pensions landscape. 2020 and beyond are set to further developments in this area. Following the publication of the PCRIG’s report of integrating climate related risk assessment, Sarasin & Partners share their holistic approach to climate change throughout the investment process.

11.10 – 11.40: KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Tackling ‘the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced’… Climate Change and the LGPS
Robert Branagh, CEO, LPFA

Synopsis: to follow

11.40 – 12.10: Gold, the most effective commodity investment
John Reade, Chief Market Strategist and Managing Director of Research, World Gold Council

Institutional investors continue to embrace alternatives to traditional stocks and bonds in pursuit of diversification and higher risk-adjusted returns. For those adding commodities to the alternative segment of their portfolio, many gain access to gold via a commodity index but this exposure fails to showcase gold’s role as a strategic asset. John Reade, chief market strategist at the World Gold Council, will showcase the difference gold plays in a portfolio as a stand-alone asset compared to broader commodity indices

12.10 – 12.20: Comfort break

12.20 – 12.50: KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Introducing the new Trustee and Support Services Panel
Helen Beckinsale, Panel Manager, Pension Protection Fund (PPF)

Panel Manager Helen Beckinsale will introduce the PPF’s new panel, appointed to provide expert advice where a sponsoring employer is in stressed or distressed circumstances or expected to enter a PPF assessment period. She will outline why the Panel is needed, the issues it will advise on, and how to access it.

12.50 – 13.10: CLOSING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Guy Opperman MP, Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion

Synopsis: to follow

13.10 – 13.15: Chair’s roundup, Apple Watch draw and close of conference
Laura Blows, Editor, Pensions Age