Guides and Reports


This SPP paper highlights a critical structural mismatch in the UK economy - UK retirees currently hold an estimated £3.84 trillion in housing wealth, yet face an aggregate annual retirement income deficit exceeding £48 billion.

Fragmented advice, separate regulatory regimes, and tax barriers like stamp duty prevent people from making holistic decisions about their wealth.

This paper synthesises insights from a major industry roundtable of leading actuaries, trustees, legal advisers, investment managers, and covenant specialists, facilitated by the SPP.

The paper challenges traditional industry momentum by examining how improved funding positions, a £160 billion aggregate surplus across UK DB schemes, and new alternatives such as superfunds and capital run-on strategies have transformed the endgame landscape.

This guide brings together practical insights to support pensions professionals navigating the early years of their career. It explores the key components of early career development in the pensions industry, from navigating professional exams and building both technical knowledge and soft skills, to establishing a strong professional reputation and managing progression.

This thought leadership paper calls for the UK’s emerging Value for Money (VfM) framework to evolve into a practical tool that helps pension savers make better-informed decisions about their retirement savings.

Whilst welcoming the Government’s proposed VfM framework as a major step forward in improving transparency, accountability and standards across the pensions market, the paper argues that the current model is still primarily designed for trustees, regulators and governance bodies rather than the millions of individuals whose retirement outcomes depend on it.

Although the £14billion in Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reserves represents a significant opportunity, it also carries a responsibility to safeguard the PPF’s core mission. Striking the right balance between prudence and innovation will be critical as policymakers consider how the PPF can evolve from a “lifeboat” into a broader legacy institution for the UK pensions system. This paper explores how this could be achieved.

The potential of Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension schemes is generating widespread interest across the pensions industry.

This SPP paper provides clear, actionable insights on the practicalities of administration, cost management, and governance for CDC schemes, setting out how these can be delivered in a way that makes CDC accessible, resilient, and trustworthy for both employers and savers.

This is a comprehensive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) paper, which covers Social Mobility, Neurodiversity, LGBTQ+, Disability, Gender and Ethnicity.

This collection of articles will help to further raise awareness and understanding of the continued importance of DEI, as well as stimulating debate both within the pensions sector and the wider business world.

This paper examines issues relating to pre-1997 indexation in DB pension schemes including the costs of protection, scheme member perspectives, trustee duties and considerations for employers.

It also highlights some of the issues with a proposed across the board legislative change and comments on various potential solutions – including the possibility of discretionary payments.