Pensions lawyer Duncan Buchanan became president of the Society of Pension Consultants (SPC) on 1 June, replacing Roger Mattingly. Buchanan, a partner at Hogan Lovells, has more than 20 years’ experience in pensions and has sat on the SPC Council for the past eight years.
What are your priorities for the role?
My main priority is to ensure that we continue to help shape the development of pension provision in the UK. The various committees within the SPC are very active in responding to consultations from government departments and regulators, but they also try to create opportunities to improve and clarify existing policy where it doesn’t seem to be working out as intended and, when appropriate, to suggest bigger picture ideas for the government to consider. The SPC’s broad and unique membership base allows us to respond in a way which considers issues from a number of viewpoints.
What are the main challenges facing the institutional investment advisory community?
Pension funds, whether defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC), are reliant on the investment advisory community to ensure that assets are effectively and efficiently invested in a manner designed to maximise returns while avoiding volatility. The main challenges are most likely to be in DC where there is government and regulatory pressure to reduce charges yet at the same time improve governance and member outcomes. There will clearly be developments in the DC investment space over the coming years as significantly more money becomes invested in DC arrangements as a result of auto-enrolment coming on stream and many employers switching from DB to DC arrangements. The days of the default lifestyle fund where investments are transitioned from return-seeking assets into cash and bonds as normal retirement date approaches may well be numbered as providers and investment advisers adapt to the 2014 Budget changes and the increased flexibility members will have. On the DB side, the goal of securing a buyout will continue to challenge schemes particularly as they move towards maturity.
How can these issues be addressed?
These are wide ranging challenges which cannot be solved just by investment advisers. Instead an holistic approach is required – involving benefit consultants, administrators and member communication specialists. Clearly, members of the SPC defined contribution, investment, legislation and administration committees are going to be busy in the coming months.
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