SPP Event: Death of the DC Flight Path

SPP Event: Death of the DC Flight Path

For decades, DC flightpaths were built around a simple idea. De-risk along a flight path as retirement approaches, then convert to an annuity. That world hasn’t existed for over a decade. And now we enter a new phase. With the Pensions Act 2026 and the development of guided retirement solutions, schemes need to re-develop default pathways into retirement income.

This raises a fundamental question. What should the later working life investment strategy look like in this brave new world?

We are already seeing several clear shifts:

• Growth assets retained for longer, to tackle adequacy and reflecting later and longer retirements and the need to sustain returns. But how much growth, for how long and in what form?
• Greater differentiation by member cohort, recognising that pot sizes, behaviours and needs vary materially. But how will this change over time, as for example AE matures?
• A wider range of decumulation models to pay an income for life may be needed: from flex and fix to cashflow-driven drawdown, CDC-style approaches, and insured + or longevity-pooled solutions. What model are we moving towards, for whom and when?

This session brings together consultants, providers and in the chair an experienced Independent Financial Advisor to explore what people need, how default strategies are evolving to deliver incomes for life, how asset managers need to adapt, and how the industry will move beyond the traditional DC flight path towards a new “to and through” investment model.

Panel:

• Callum Stewart, DC Investment Partner, XPS Group
• Emily Tann, Senior Solution Designer, Client Solutions Group, Insight Investment
• James Monk, Workplace Investment Director, Fidelity International
• Dilara Uyduran, Chartered Financial Planner, Hymans Robertson Personal Wealth (Chair)