Conference Programme

09:00-09:25

Delegate registration

09:25-09:30

Chairman's introduction
Jonathan Stapleton, Editor, Professional Pensions

09:30-09:55

Keynote speaker
Mark Hoban MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury

09:55-10:20

Linking good investment governance with strong portfolio performance

• Sharing key best-practice factors
• Successfully aligning governance arrangements with your investment strategies
• How are schemes currently improving the corporate governance of the firms they invest in?

Sion Cole, Specialist Advisor Delegated Consulting Services UK & Europe, Aon Hewitt 

10:20-10:45

Opportunities and risks in the bond markets

• Sharing a view on the latest updates in bond market investment
• Unearthing value in good quality bonds through analysis-driven investment decisions
• Reviewing the ongoing evolution of bond investment - where next for pension funds?

Paul Brain, Investment Leader, Fixed Income Team, Newton Investment Management 

10:45-11:10

Make diversification your beta: The Anti-Benchmark approach

• Why are traditional indices far from the efficient frontier?
• What are the alternatives to investing in market cap-weighted indices?
• What are the benefits of Diversification in times of volatility?
• What is the Anti-Benchmark approach?

Yves Choueifaty, President and CIO, Tobam

11:10-11:35

Refreshment break

11:35-12:00

Re-growing the pensions pot through diversified growth

• What are the advantages and risks in this single manager investment model?
• How to set a fund selection criteria with an over-flow of options
• Benchmarking a diversified growth fund: how to track against other funds

Mike Turner, Head of Global Strategy and Asset Allocation, Aberdeen Asset Management

12:00-12:25

Thinking holistically about DC default strategies

• Recognising improvements that Trustees and companies can make to the default strategy?
• Revealing decision making criteria to provide the optimum switching period
• Uncovering innovative methods of introducing diversification into default funds
• Key considerations for any firm or Trustee board to look at when reviewing their default fund or checking if it is still best of breed

John Marsland, Fund Manager, QEP Global Equities, Schroders

12:25-12:50

DC investment innovations

• Gaining insights into some of the latest market innovations and investment trends that exist in the DC platform market
• How can funds achieve greater diversity with reduced reliance on equities?

David Hutchins, Head of Investment Research and Design, UK & Ireland, AllianceBernstein

12:50-14:00

Networking lunch

Breakout sessions: your choice from one of the below

14:00-14:25

The rise and rise of alternative investments

• As allocations to alternative assets continue to rise this session takes a deeper look into some of the leading alternative investment offerings
• Aligning alternative asset investment choices with portfolio return targets

What could Solvency II mean for scheme investment?

• Understanding the requirements for DB schemes
• How might Solvency II affect DC scheme investment strategies?
• Examining the impact of Solvency II on company profit margins

Breakout sessions: your choice from one of the below

14:30-14:55

Putting the trust back into investing in infrastructure

• Understanding the challenges and benefits of investing in infrastructure
• Relating this asset's low correlation with traditional asset classes, to the risk-return optimisation of a portfolio
• How have funds been capitalising on infrastructure opportunities to date

Moderating investment fees and transaction costs

• Investigating the drivers behind the increase in fund transaction cost analysis
• Monitoring and setting controls: are pension funds getting good value?
• Shedding light on how schemes are reducing the cost of managing their assets

Breakout sessions: your choice from one of the below

15:00-15:25

Re-defining property investing for UK pension funds

• What are the traditional routes and are they still working?
• What are the new opportunities, how can pension funds access them and what returns are they looking to deliver?
• The benefits of investing globally, as a complement to a core UK exposure

Phil Ellis, Client Portfolio Director - Real Estate, Aviva Investors

 Where does currency fit in your pension 
 portfolio?

• Can currency be used as an asset class or is it best suited to hedging
  
• How should pension funds invest in FX?

Breakout sessions: your choice from one of the below

15:30-15:50

DC Case Study

DB Case Study

15:50-16:10

Refreshment break

16:10-16:35

Fiduciary management in the UK institutional market

• What are the implications and opportunities for schemes?
• Practical considerations of manager selection and performance monitoring
• Achieving long-term goals through close partnership and active management

Heath Mottram, Director, Fiduciary Management, Russell Investments

16:35-17:00

Managing fund liquidity during economic volatility

• How can funds get more oversight of their liquidity management functions to allow for a faster reaction to market volatility?
• Reviewing the latest methods of strategic asset allocation tools

17:00-17:25

Forward thinking in LDI

In a world of greater uncertainty and volatile markets with an ever-increasing focus on de-risking, the traditional, often static, approach to LDI is at odds with the needs of Trustees and sponsors. But what needs to change? Laura Brown, Head of Ignis Solutions, will explore the need for LDI solutions to be designed in a more pragmatic way:

• Delivering better protection through more closely-matching benchmarks and, crucially, lower costs - through making more efficient use of assets
• Exploring the benefits of using forward rates, rather than relying on the averaging implicit within duration-based approaches
• Explaining how increased transparency can be achieved to the benefit of trustees and sponsoring companies

Laura Brown, Head of Ignis Solutions, Ignis Asset Management

17:25-17:30

Chairman's closing remarks and close of conference
Jonathan Stapleton, Editor, Professional Pensions

17:30-18:30

Networking drinks reception