There will be many of you sick of football after Euro 2020, though personally, as a football fan the past number of weeks have been a joy. While I am conscious of not alienating a significant proportion of you who don’t share my enthusiasm, I think some wider themes have emerged from the championship over the past weeks that we can translate across to our professional lives.
As a “neutral observer”, I have witnessed extreme highs, undeserved losses, unpredictable triumphs and even, literal life-or-death incidents. Favourites have fallen, underdogs have usurped, and supporters have screamed and squirmed. Yet the one crucial theme that I have noticed from the competition is that team spirit, togetherness and preparation are common threads amongst the teams that lasted the course. Working for each other, supporting each other, sharing past experiences and knowledge – these are the hallmarks of a successful team campaign.
There is no reason why we can’t translate similar ideas across into our work. Pension schemes might have a slightly longer time horizon than three or so weeks of a tournament, but they do involve a real, long-term team effort, built on cooperation, shared knowledge and trust. Learning from past experiences, preparing for future challenges and communicating at all times are crucial to delivering for pension scheme members. There may be no trophies– let alone scheme members cheering like fans – but there will still be a team success at the end of it all.
So, with those lessons in mind, we have selected a squad of topics that we believe will help sponsors and trustees alike in getting their tactics ready for the battles ahead. This quarter we focus on recent changes to how trustees administer transfer value requests to help tackle scams, updates on the Pension Schemes Act 2021 and Finance Act 2021, responsible investment developments and even an article to mark the 3-year anniversary of the introduction of GDPR.
From everyone at Spence, we hope you continue to stay safe and enjoy the read.
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