Assessing pension scheme risk – with Claire Altman, managing director of PRT at Standard Life скачать в хорошем качестве

Assessing pension scheme risk – with Claire Altman, managing director of PRT at Standard Life

"In this episode of The Professional Investment Podcast I am joined by Claire Altman, managing director of pension risk transfer and individual retirement at Standard Life. She chose Professional Pensions’ coverage of a Hymans Robertson survey showing most defined benefit members are open to run-on. Claire says this story shows the complexities involved in both framing survey questions correctly and ensuring members have access to all the facts before they decide whether it more beneficial for the scheme to be bought-out or to run on. We discuss the regulatory arbitrage which exists between pension schemes and insurance companies – Claire explains insurance companies must manage their risk to ensure that they will survive if a 1 in 200-year risk while a pension scheme does not have such a requirement. She explains there three key areas of risk a scheme needs to assess – asset, covenant and liabilities. All of these areas need to be assessed before a scheme can say whether run-on or buy-out is the better option. While schemes are usually good at assessing assets and covenant risks, they can be less accurate about liabilities. Liability risk covers three areas – longevity, data and legalisation. Ensuring a scheme has dug every box out of the archives and made sure they have an accurate picture of all the promises made to every scheme member is the place to start. Getting a handle on this will help a scheme to figure out its longevity risk. Insurance companies are working to help schemes better manage this risk, she added. Legislation risk is tougher to assess. We ended the podcasting discussing the pros and cons of both buy-out and run-on while also asking whether pension schemes can really take advantage of their regulatory flexibility given their desire to protect their current funding position." ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Claire is the MD of BPA and Individual Retirement at Standard Life. Claire now leads on delivering growth into the BPA and individual retirement markets at Standard Life having joined Standard Life in 2021. Prior to joining Standard Life, Claire was a partner at Sackers, a specialist pensions law firm where she advised both DB and DC clients before moving to Capital Cranfield where she chaired both DB and DC trustee boards and took schemes to buy-out. ⸻ ABOUT THE HOST: Charlotte Moore is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Moore Squared Communications. She has spent almost two decades writing about how the UK’s largest investment organisations allocate their capital for a number of different specialist magazines including Professional Pensions, IPE and MandateWire. She started this podcast to increase understanding of how and why the UK’s £3 trillion pensions industry invests its members’ capital to provide the best possible retirement. 🔗 https://lotsmoore.co.uk/ CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction to the Professional Investment Podcast 00:15 Introducing Claire Altman, Standard Life 00:50 Story of the week: DB members open to run-on 01:28 Are people making pension decisions with the right information? 03:05 How recent UK changes have affected pension understanding 04:45 Communication challenges in defined benefit pensions 06:20 Member engagement: are people interested enough to learn? 08:10 Perspective of scheme members vs trustees 10:05 Comparing pensions properly: apples vs apples 12:10 Assets, liabilities, and long-term funding reality 14:05 Risk, uncertainty, and “1-in-200” events 16:20 Flexibility differences between schemes and members 18:05 Where responsibility really sits in pension decision-making 20:15 Investment focus vs outcomes for members 22:30 What better information and framing could look like 24:40 Key takeaways for trustees and professionals 27:20 Final thoughts and closing reflections #PensionsPodcast #DefinedBenefit #UKPensions