The Professional Investment Podcast

Charlotte Moore
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Welcome to the Professional Investment Podcast! This podcast is targeted at people involved in the professional investment industry – in particular, those who are involved in how large institutions, such as pension schemes and insurance companies, allocate their billions. We will be talking to chief investment officers, head of sustainability and the consultants, pension schemes and insurance companies responsible for generating retirement wealth. And our audience are those involved in the professional investment chain.

  1. 3D AGO

    Adapting to investment uncertainty – with Niall Aitken, head of investment strategy at Aegon UK

    In this episode of The Professional Investment Podcast, Niall Aitken, head of investment strategy at Aegon UK, chose Professional Pension’s story that schemes are adapting portfolio construction as uncertainty becomes structural. We discussed how Aegon is adapting their portfolio strategy both during the wealth growth and wealth spending stages of the member journey. We talk about how private assets are being incorporated into both parts of the journey. Aegon has worked with third-party asset managers to build three different LTAFs which can be used at different points of the member journey. We also talked about how Aegon is incorporating more equity exposure during retirement but sacrificing some of the upside to protect against market corrections which have negative for particular cohorts. Niall discussed what good performance looks like both during the wealth building and spending stage of the portfolio. He unpacked whether the current value for money framework accurately captures performance and how this might be applied to retirement portion of the journey. Finally we discussed whether the result of value for money would be herding around the same performance metrics which could result in very similar portfolio strategies and little innovation in workplace pension schemes. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Niall is Head of Investment Strategy in the Investment Proposition team at Aegon UK and is responsible for building a strategy and development roadmap, and implementation of investment solutions to drive growth in Aegon's Workplace and Adviser channels to deliver the best possible investment outcomes for Aegon's customers. Niall has been with Aegon for 3 and a half years having spent 16 years with Royal London in a variety of pension and investment roles ending his time there as a senior investment actuary. ⸻ 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://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction & Guest Welcome 00:00:38 – Story of the Week: Pension Conflict of Interest Concerns 00:01:48 – Member Interests, Tied Advice & Endgame Risks 00:02:40 – Types of Conflicts Trustees Face 00:04:42 – Unconscious Bias & Advisor Selection 00:05:53 – Trustee Influence on Investment Decisions 00:06:02 – The Pensions Regulator & “Good Trusteeship” Standards 00:08:34 – The Rise of Sole Trusteeships 00:11:44 – Endgame Planning: Buyout, Run-On & Superfunds 00:26:44 – Surplus, Fairness & Final Reflections #ProfessionalInvestmentPodcast #Pensions #UKPensions #PensionGovernance #Trusteeship #ConflictsOfInterest #SoleTrustee #DBPensions #DCPensions #PensionsRegulator #EndgamePlanning #Buyout #Superfund #InvestmentGovernance

    32 min

  2. FEB 24

    Pension conflicts of interest – with Darren Masters, professional trustee at Capital Cranfield

    Darren Masters, professional trustee at Capital Cranfield Trustees, joins us for this episode of The Professional Investment Podcast. His news story of the week is Professional Pension’s story that in-house advisers raise conflict of interest concerns. We discuss the different ways conflicts of interest can arise in a defined benefit scheme such as trustees as employees and possibly also in senior company roles as well as advisers working for both the sponsors and the scheme. Many professional trustees often come from investment consultancy backgrounds so could favour third-party providers they used to use at those firms. This can become muddled with cognitive bias. Last year The Pensions Regulator published a framework looking at how the professional trustee works with the aim of increasing its influence over this growing market and its increasing influence on legacy defined benefit schemes. Our conversation turned to taking a closer look at the different options available for large, medium and small schemes when it comes to building pension portfolios and the endgame options. We discussed the importance of governance in ensuring the best member outcomes and how difficult it can be for trustees to consider the smorgasbord of different endgame options. But the heterogeneity of the UK’s 5,000 or so DB schemes mean coming up with simple options are not an option. We finished our discussion by touching on just a few ways pensions schemes can have entirely different characteristics to one another. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Darren Masters is a Professional Trustee at Capital Cranfield Pension Trustees Limited. Prior to joining Capital Cranfield he was a Partner at Mercer and headed up their covenant consulting business, having been involved in the employer covenant industry since its establishment in 2004. He is a chartered accountant and former restructuring and insolvency practitioner. ⸻ 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://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction & Guest Welcome 00:00:38 – Story of the Week: Pension Conflict of Interest Concerns 00:01:48 – Member Interests, Tied Advice & Endgame Risks 00:02:40 – Types of Conflicts Trustees Face 00:04:42 – Unconscious Bias & Advisor Selection 00:05:53 – Trustee Influence on Investment Decisions 00:06:02 – The Pensions Regulator & “Good Trusteeship” Standards 00:08:34 – The Rise of Sole Trusteeships 00:11:44 – Endgame Planning: Buyout, Run-On & Superfunds 00:26:44 – Surplus, Fairness & Final Reflections #ProfessionalInvestmentPodcast #Pensions #UKPensions #PensionGovernance #Trusteeship #ConflictsOfInterest #SoleTrustee #DBPensions #DCPensions #PensionsRegulator #EndgamePlanning #Buyout #Superfund #InvestmentGovernance

    31 min

  3. FEB 10

    Rebuilding UK infrastructure – with Tony English, head of LGPS investment at Mercer

    Tony English, head of LGPS Investment at Mercer, joins us for the fourth episode of series five of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose the FT’s story about Canadian pension funds exiting the UK’s largest port operator as his news story of the week. This story shines a light on the challenges facing the LGPS pools and partner funds as they get to grips with the Fit for the Future reforms as well as the government’s requirement for a local investment plan by September. Tony explained how the government has been broad in its definition of local investment – giving the LGPS the option to invest hyper-locally and in the areas captured by the pool. This could lead to co-investment opportunities between pools. We discussed how local investment usually translates to building trains, homes and hospitals but could also be considered bolstering the local economy whether that’s providing a boost to small business or revivifying high streets. When thought about in these terms, it’s easy to see how the investment goals of auto-enrolled workplace pension schemes and the LGPS could align. Tony pointed out that both types of scheme have already invested in the HARP water project. This involves rebuilding the Haweswater Aqueduct. Tony also mentioned the Thames Tideway tunnel as another project where UK pension schemes – along with international asset owners – can help to provided much needed infrastructure. Once the dust has settled on the Fit for the Future reforms, Tony hopes pension schemes will be able to expand their investment horizons by working with third-party asset managers to build these much-needed infrastructure projects. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Tony English is a Senior Investment Consultant and Head of LGPS Investment for Mercer. In addition to LGPS funds, Tony also advises a number of other institutional investors including corporate pension funds and trust funds. Tony has over 26 years of investment experience, having joined Mercer in 1999. During this time he has been involved in a wide variety of projects, including investment strategy, manager selections, private markets, ESG policies (including climate change) and pension risk transfer. Tony also regularly facilitates trustee training courses. Tony graduated with a degree in physics from the University of Warwick. He is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK ('CFA UK'), holds the Certificate in ESG Investing and is a regular member of CFA Institute. Tony represents Mercer on the Scheme Advisory Board’s Investment Committee and the AIMSE Europe Council. ⸻ 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://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Welcome to the Professional Investment Podcast 00:40 Tony English Introduced 01:02 The FT Story: Canadian Pension Funds & UK Ports 02:05 Why Domestic Investment Pressure Is Growing 03:30 UK Pension Reform & Government Policy Direction 05:10 Overseas Ownership of UK Infrastructure 07:15 Should UK Pension Funds Invest More at Home? 09:30 Risk, Fiduciary Duty & Political Pressure 12:00 Infrastructure as a National Asset 14:20 The Role of LGPS in UK Growth 16:45 Scale, Consolidation & Investment Strategy 19:10 Balancing Returns vs Economic Impact 21:30 Public vs Private Market Exposure 23:40 Global Diversification vs Domestic Allocation 25:50 What This Means for UK Pension Schemes 29:10 Closing Remarks

    30 min

  4. FEB 3

    Meeting LGPS local investment ambition – with David Walker, CIO of Hymans Robertson

    David Walker, chief investment officer at Hymans Robertson, is the guest on this episode of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose the story LGPS Central is expanding its co-investment strategy as his news story of the week. The government’s Fit for the Future reforms has created huge change for the LGPS. With two pools disbanded, other pools are expanding their partner funds. These organisations also must start providing strategic investment advice – in other words, replacing the partner funds investment consultants. The number of partner funds being added is significant. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership will go from 11 to 18, Local Pensions Partnership from three to nine and LGPS Central from eight to 15. David explains this creates significant operational challenges without also becoming investment advisors. As result, it’s not surprising that some pools might lose focus on expanding their investment allocations as they deal with those challenges. There will be the significant operational burden of dealing with long tails of legacy assets as those partner funds are absorbed into new pools. But over the long term there is an opportunity for pools to both increase their asset universe as well as adding more granular detail within each asset class. For example, moving away from just passive equities to active strategies. We also discussed the challenges larger pools face in meeting the government’s desire for greater local investment given they now have more assets and are spread over larger parts of the country. David said it’s not yet clear how each pool will handle this challenge. Despite the government’s ambition for pools to carry out more investment themselves, this expansion adds up to considerable opportunity for asset managers to forge new long-term relationships with LGPS pools. At the end of the podcast, David and I discuss the need for greater investment diversification as well as the considerable opportunities in the UK institutional market. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: David is an Actuary and Chief Investment Officer who has been with Hymans Robertson for over 20 years. David is Hymans Robertson's Chief Investment Officer, responsible for chairing our Research Oversight Group setting which oversees our investment research agenda. He currently advises a number of private sector and LGPS funds across the whole range of investment services and ensures our clients benefit from our latest strategic thinking. ⸻ 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://mooresquaredcommunications.com/the-professional-investment-podcast/ CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Introduction and episode overview 01:00 – Pensions news focus: LGPS Central and infrastructure investment 05:00 – Why infrastructure matters for long-term pension outcomes 09:30 – Pooling, scale and governance in LGPS investing 14:30 – Risk, valuation and timing considerations 18:30 – Broader European pensions trends and political risk 22:30 – Scheme endgame thinking and buyout implications 26:00 – Key takeaways for pensions professionals 28:30 – Closing remarks #LGPS #UKPensions #PensionFunds #InfrastructureInvestment #PensionsIndustry

    29 min

  5. JAN 27

    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

    29 min

  6. JAN 13

    FCA’s value-for-money framework – with Jerry Butcher, workplace savings director at Scottish Widows

    In the first episode of series five of The Professional Investment Podcast, Jerry Butcher − workplace savings director at Scottish Widows, talks to me about the government’s new proposed ‘traffic light’ value-for-money framework. Last week a tribe of government departments – The Pensions Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions – published a consultation on a value-for-money framework for defined contribution schemes. Jerry chose this announcement as his news story of the week. We discuss how a four-point rather than three-point traffic lights as well as the incorporation of future performance metrics will allow for greater nuance when it comes to assessing the performance of pension schemes. We discuss the implications of the proposed framework for pension providers and how any scheme rated amber will have three years to improve while those rated red will have to transfer their assets elsewhere. The VFM framework is not the only DC policy included in the Pensions Scheme – master trusts will also need to have assets of around £25bn. This drive to consolidation will compete against creating value for money and Jerry unpacks the implications for the industry. We took a deep dive into what value-for-money – from an investment perspective – means for scheme members and Jerry expresses concern that these measures should not a means to push every scheme to follow the same investment strategy. There has been much discussion about the inclusion of private assets in pension portfolios but Jerry warns these are no magic bullet and providers need the flexibility to design the best risk-adjusted portfolio to provide long-term wealth for members. He also cautions against governments becoming too statist about domestic investment. Finally, we reflect that, for most scheme members, value for money means high service levels and providers working to improve engagement. He notes the current frameworks seems to put less priority on these metrics. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: Jerry is the Workplace Savings Director at Scottish Widows within Lloyds Banking Group, where he leads the end-to-end Workplace Savings business, supporting over 4.6 million customers in preparing for retirement through their employer-sponsored pension schemes. Jerry brings extensive expertise across Insurance, Pensions, and Investments. His previous roles include overseeing Scottish Widows' legacy product portfolio ahead of Consumer Duty implementation, driving strategy, M&A, public policy, and leading strategic investments in the Accumulation and Retirement businesses. Before joining Lloyds Banking Group, Jerry started as an Army officer in the Parachute Regiment, earned his MBA from INSEAD, and spent a decade in Investment Banking - both in markets and M&A advisory. ⸻ CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Welcome to Series 5 of The Professional Investment Podcast 01:12 – Introducing Jerry Butcher and today’s focus 03:05 – Why private markets matter to long-term investors 06:10 – Understanding risk in modern investment portfolios 09:25 – Risk vs return: how professionals really assess it 12:40 – Capital allocation and long-term strategy 15:55 – Market cycles and investor behaviour 18:45 – Private markets compared to public markets 22:05 – What investors often misunderstand about risk 25:10 – Key lessons for professional and institutional investors 28:20 – Final thoughts and closing remarks #PrivateMarkets #InvestmentStrategy #ProfessionalInvesting #RiskManagement #CapitalAllocation #LongTermInvesting #WealthManagement #FinancialMarkets #InstitutionalInvesting #InvestmentPodcast

    30 min

  7. 12/19/2025

    Season 4 | The Standout Moments | The Professional Investment Podcast

    The best moments from Season 4 of The Professional Investment Podcast.This highlights episode brings together some of the most insightful conversations, standout perspectives, and practical takeaways from across the season. From investment strategy and market insight to leadership, decision-making, and long-term thinking, these clips capture the depth and clarity that defined Season 4.Whether you’re revisiting key discussions or discovering the podcast for the first time, this compilation offers a focused snapshot of the ideas, expertise, and experience shared throughout the season.🎧 About the podcastThe Professional Investment Podcast explores investment thinking, market dynamics, and professional insight through in-depth conversations with industry experts and leaders. Each episode is designed to inform, challenge, and support thoughtful decision-making in an ever-changing financial landscape.⸻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/

    22 min

  8. 12/09/2025

    What fiduciary duty really means – with Paul Todd, chief operating officer of Nest Invest

    Paul Todd, chief operating officer at Nest Invest, is our final guest for series four of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose the news pensions minister Torsten Bell wants to give fiduciary duty a legislative overhaul as his story of the week. We talked about the importance of having a broad definition of fiduciary duty when investing, like Nest does, for many decades. Including climate change and investing in the domestic economy are important considerations over this time frame as well as the risk and return profile of both the overall portfolio and different asset classes. Paul explained how he thinks about embedding climate change considerations within the overall portfolio. He talks about how tilts can help Nest to mitigate climate risk in passive equity allocations without losing out on returns. He also discussed the importance of using active equity strategies to reduce US tech concentration risk. It’s helpful fixed income has become an investable asset class now that master trusts need to offer a default retirement income. But despite the ability of debt to provide predictable income, it’s also important for investors to have growth assets in their portfolio, added Paul. Private assets give long-term investors the ability to implement a broad definition of fiduciary duty. Paul discussed how these assets can both help investor to allocate to green technology as well as having more control over climate change because of direct relationships with companies. We touched on the different ways for master trusts to build retirement income, including CDC. While Nest prefers a deferred annuity to provide longevity protection for members, the master trust does not rule out this option down the line. Finally, Paul shared the steps Nest is taking now to get ready for when the master trust reaches assets under management of £100bn. He discussed the importance of learning from Canadian and Australian pension schemes as well as sharing his top tips for other master trusts which will be growing rapidly in the coming years. ⸻ ABOUT THE GUEST: As Chief Operating Officer at Nest Invest, Paul is part of the senior leadership team working with the CEO and CIO to set strategic direction and the approach to delivery. He has lead responsibility for developing Nest Retirement Funds’ architecture, policy and delivery; approach to outsourcing; the integration of member analysis into investment strategy and fiduciary development; business model evolution; and fund administration.   Prior to joining Nest in 2008 he worked at DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equality at the European Commission as a detached national expert on pension systems and social security. ⸻ 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 – Intro & welcome to the Professional Investment Podcast 00:12 – Meet Paul Todd, COO of Nest Invest 00:42 – News story of the week: fiduciary duty debate 03:33 – What fiduciary duty means in practice (climate & UK assets) 04:44 – How investing really works at portfolio level 07:03 – Climate tilts, equities and transition plans 09:36 – Concentration risk, US tech and thematic investing 11:11 – Fixed income is back: retirement income implications 14:01 – Private markets, climate and stewardship 16:39 – Investing in UK productive assets 20:21 – Designing retirement income: sequencing risk & longevity 26:30 – Scale, consolidation and the future of DC schemes 34:48 – Wrap-up, thanks and Series 5 announcement

    36 min
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Welcome to the Professional Investment Podcast! This podcast is targeted at people involved in the professional investment industry – in particular, those who are involved in how large institutions, such as pension schemes and insurance companies, allocate their billions. We will be talking to chief investment officers, head of sustainability and the consultants, pension schemes and insurance companies responsible for generating retirement wealth. And our audience are those involved in the professional investment chain.

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