The Pensions and Life Savings Association - Investment Conference 2018

  •  
Blog

The annual Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) conference in Edinburgh brought together leaders of the pension industry from trustees to investment managers, and addresses the biggest challenges faced by the industry with the aid of key guest speakers and expert knowledge. This year’s focus was on cost transparency, regulation, and diversity, and below are some of my personal highlights.

Gaining the public's trust again

The pension industry gaining more public trust was a key theme of the conference, with reference to a focus on cost transparency. Costs are an obviously important issue for investors; however I feel there should be concentration on the best value manager, not the cheapest.

Remembering the financial crisis

Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minster in the years of the financial crisis, was one of the key speakers and discussed the notion that people are already starting to forget the way that imbalances, exposures, and liabilities can brew in a financial system, as during the 2007/8 financial crisis, if left unchecked. I believe he was making reference to senior members of systemically important firms (such as banks) having left their businesses or retired from work, leaving people who did not experience the crisis in their previous positions in charge.

The impact of advances in technology

Advances in technology were also alluded to – firms now have access to blockchain technology to help reduce costs trading (although this isn’t yet widely used), however there is concern with this in that firms will need to share information which will probably cause a greater delay than getting the technology.

Ethical investing

Ethical/impact investing was mentioned often. Ethical investments are not just about ethical investing, but also about reducing the risk in a portfolio - for example, challenges facing tobacco firms due to increased regulation will reduce sales and therefore share price. Ethical investing is more aligned with long-term investing, allocating to things such as renewable energy.

Asset bubble

A panel discussion was held on asset bubbles because of equity markets being at all time highs. It was debated that given the high valuations of equities it would not be unimaginable for the US equity markets to halve in value based on P/E ratios, and counter-argued that other valuation techniques don’t consider them to be overvalued at all. I struggle to see the where the growth in equites will come from given the rise of interest rates in the US. If you would like to discuss any of the topics or issues raised above you can get in touch with me by phone on 020 3794 0193 or email I'd love to hear from you.  

Further reading

Is your DB scheme an asset rather than a liability?

Blog
by Alistair Russell-Smith   •  

2024 Charity Defined Benefit Pensions Benchmarking Report

Blog
by Alistair Russell-Smith   •  

Spring Budget 2024 – What does it mean for pensions?

Blog
by Angela Burns   •  

More Insights?