I am always taken aback when it comes to sitting down and drafting the introduction for our quarterly update. Firstly, it never feels like three months have passed by. Perhaps that feeling of time passing hastily is testament to our modern, busy lives. Or perhaps it speaks more to my own aging! Yet what is more disconcerting is exactly how much can change in those three ever-shorter months.
It does feel like for the past number of years, each quarter has brought its own financial drama, its own moment of political shift, its own record-breaking event, or indeed, its own international crisis. These are fast-moving times in which we live. Recent events in the Middle East serve to show us, in the most chastening way, that we simply cannot fully predict nor prepare for the curve balls that the future might throw at us.
Yet, I remind myself that this quarterly report does not aim to predict with accuracy. It does not profess to prophesise what will happen in our industry over the coming months, quarters, years, to the nth degree. Its purpose is to offer a degree of foresight. To encourage a level of general readiness, that will stand us in good stead to deal with those curve balls when they do swerve on to our trajectory.
So, to that end, we have pulled together a collection of articles on topics that we have some degree of foresight about, which will stand us in good stead for those unforeseen events that will inevitably come our way in the weeks and months ahead.
Our focus in this quarter turns to the Mansion House reforms, with a clutch of articles each focusing on different aspects of those important announcements. We also have articles discussing the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance, an update on the Virgin Media case and a review into pension scams by the Money and Pensions Service. Alongside our traditional ever-present articles providing investment market, actuarial and DC updates, there is what is becoming an ever-present update on the pensions dashboard too! Then closing the report, we have our ‘Coming Up Next’ article, which looks further ahead to offer some foresight on what we can expect in the coming months.
As always, from everyone at Spence, we hope you enjoy reading the report.
