V-FM: The Pensions Podcast

In this episode of V-FM, hosts Darren and Nico are 'out and about' at the PMI's DC and Master Trust Symposium where we recorded an 'as live' session on Pensions and Housing. We are joined by Anna Brain who led a significant piece on research for NEST Insight and Schroders' Rich Fox who was involved in the Lifetime Savings Initiative, as we examine the evidence and debate whether pensions could and/or should be used to support home ownership.

In this episode of V-FM pensions, hosts Darren and Nico chat to Standard Life's Esther Hawley about all things decumulation. We hear about Standard Life's approach to helping people with the knotty challenge of how to turn pensions into income including segmenting members, the anchoring decisions around essential versus discretionary income, and offering a guided “starter” solution rather than simply presenting the customer with a blank page. We chat through the range of challenges in helping people at retirement particularly around couples and data integration, and, of course, touch on the total nonsense (Darren's words) of having separate regulatory regimes for people in contract schemes and trust-based schemes. But underpinning it all is a sense of hope... the new regulatory direction on retirement income defaults gives providers greater licence to act.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Nico and Darren continue ploughing through listener questions, with a focus this time on how the system actually turns pots into pensions. We chat retirement income and pension freedoms; investment in the UK; pension dashboards; product innovation; lessons from Australia; regulation and what the future might look like.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico put themselves at the mercy of listener questions in this Q+A special (part one...) that lays bare some of the current and emerging fault lines in UK pensions... Listeners’ questions push Darren and Nico to discuss whether VFM is about member outcomes, system outcomes, or society at large? Pensions exist to pay money in retirement, and anything else is a bonus only if it doesn’t cost members.... discuss? From net zero to DB schemes quietly propping up government debt, the episode surfaces a deeper tension that is at the heart of the system... are pensions private savings vehicles or instruments of public policy? The hosts are critical of the current VFM framework as being too focused on inputs, blind to real-world outcomes, and ill-equipped to judge a 60-year savings journey. Meanwhile, engagement remains superficial, policymaking short-term, and adequacy the elephant in the room. And hanging over it all, a bigger doubt: what if the long-term equity growth story the whole system relies on doesn’t hold?

In this episode of V-FM Pensions hosts Darren and Nico chat to Simon Chrystal, CEO of WPS Advisory. Simon's been on the pod before and we wanted to get him back on to talk about the evolution of his advisory business and some of the interesting stuff he is doing with the rollout of his LifeStage app. Simon reframes value for money as a practical, human outcome improving people’s lives rather than a technical or regulatory metric. He argues the proposed framework overcomplicates what should be common sense, reflecting a wider issue: the pensions industry has failed to lead innovation despite a decades-long shift toward individual financial responsibility, leaving regulators to fill the gap. Drawing on WPS Advisory’s experience Simon highlights both the scale of demand for advice and the barriers created by regulation. He points to rising PI insurance costs, commercial pressure from some quarters to compromise standards in DB transfers, and FCA data showing around 600,000 consumers losing ongoing advice over two years as evidence of an industry under strain and increasingly unable to serve consumers effectively. Using data from the LifeStage Money app, he shows people want control over day-to-day finances first, with tight budgets and property dominating wealth, and making the case that VFM frameworks must start with real consumer needs, not assumptions.

This week on V-FM, hosts Darren and Nico are joined by Philip Smith and Ruari Grant from TPT, a £11.5bn, 500,000-member hybrid powerhouse quietly shaping some of the biggest shifts in UK pensions. From mandation risks and the unanswered questions behind the £25bn scale test, to the real tensions inside the Value for Money framework, this conversation goes straight to the heart of the Pensions Bill and why detail really matters. We get into what “value” actually means, the risk of herding into vanilla strategies, and why decumulation is the missing piece in today’s policy push. Plus we take a look at TPT’s award-winning retirement solution, its profit-for-purpose model, and how CDC fits alongside DC, not instead of it. Big themes, sharp takes, lots discussed and lots still to discuss! 🎧 Well worth a listen 🎧

In this episode of V-FM, hosts Darren and Nico chat to LCP’s Sam Cobley discussing the role of Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) in the UK pensions system. Sitting between DC and DB, CDC pools members with the aim of delivering a more stable retirement income, but requires savers to give up some of the flexibility offered by DC. The discussion centres on whether the potential income uplift is large enough to justify that trade-off. Sam challenges some of the more optimistic claims about CDC outcomes, with Nico coining the term “CDC washing” to describe estimates of 50–75% higher incomes based on outdated comparisons with annuity-targeting DC strategies. Sam’s recent analysis suggests a more realistic improvement of around 15–25% compared with modern income-drawdown DC approaches, reflecting how rapidly DC investment strategies have evolved. The conversation explores how CDC could work in practice from cohorting and buffers, to which retirees it may suit best. While CDC could offer better value for certain cohorts, particularly those seeking income stability, its success will depend on careful design, fair pricing, and how it competes alongside an increasingly sophisticated DC market.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions hosts Darren and Nico chat to Now: Pensions' Samantha Gould. Samantha heads up Now's PR and campaigns and has been particularly vocal in campaigning about pensions inequality. We explore the structural drivers of the gender pensions gap and the wider challenge of under-pensioned groups. Samantha discusses her campaigning work since the first gender pensions gap report in 2019 (with the Pensions Policy Institute), which has since expanded to identify eight groups most at risk of pension poverty. A key theme is women’s “squiggly careers”, where time out of the workforce for childcare or elder care, combined with the design of auto enrolment, prevents millions from building adequate pension savings. Samantha argues that reforms such as amending the auto enrolment rules, mandating pension sharing orders in divorce and improving childcare and maternity pension contributions could materially narrow the gap. The discussion touches on pension dashboards, the balance between income security and access to capital in retirement, and the meaning of value for money. For Samantha, it ultimately comes down to fairness... ensuring the pensions system works for people regardless of gender, background or career path.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico take a meander through some recent pension news stories. The pair discuss:

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Nico and Darren welcome their first-ever podcast guest back to the show: David Butcher. They catch up with David to hear how his mindfulness coaching through Positively Aware is going and to get his thoughts on V-FM, trusteeship, and the insight he has gained from recent trustee experiences. David also shares a brilliant story about gatecrashing a festival… a moment that somehow didn’t make it into his first appearance (and, honestly, the real reason we invited him back...). And to round things off, David leads listeners through a short meditation at the end of the episode.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, Darren and Nico chat through their thoughts on the FCA and TPR's latest consultation on value for money (CP 26/1). In a must listen episode for anyone developing their response to the consultation, the duo's personal thoughts (not those of their employers...) include:

In this episode of V-FM Pensions hosts Darren and Nico chat to Pan Trustees' Nicholas Chadha to explore what value for money means in modern trusteeship. Nick reflects on his journey from actuarial adviser to professional trustee, and shares insight into schemes at very different ends of the spectrum, from those entering the PPF with recovery plans acting as a drag on sponsors, to schemes managing surplus and difficult decisions around how it should be shared between members and employers. We discuss the ins and outs of the innovative Aberdeen Stagecoach deal as part of a wider conversation about future options for DB schemes. We also chat about barriers for schemes moving to superfunds and conflicts of interest within professional trustee firms. Nick makes the case that true value for money isn’t about defaulting to industry orthodoxy... it’s about spending wisely, challenging assumptions, and ultimately improving outcomes for members.

In this episode of VFM Pensions, hosts Nico and Darren are joined by Claire Altman, who leads Standard Life’s work across pensions risk transfer and individual retirement solutions. Claire shares her brilliantly unconventional journey from criminal and family law barrister into pensions, from lawyer to trustee to commercial innovator. We explore what it really means to deliver value for money in retirement, why emotional certainty often matters as much as mathematical optimisation, and how a growing web of regulation is shaping the future of both DB endgames and DC pension outcomes.

In this episode of VFM Pensions, Nico and Darren are joined by "Red" Rory Murphy, trustee chair, board adviser, pensions commentator and lifelong trade unionist. Rory brings a refreshingly different perspective to the pensions debate, shaped by decades in the trade union movement and hands-on experience of running smaller schemes. In a typically wide-ranging conversation we touch on the role of trustees and why they are too cautious when it comes to delivering better outcomes for members. We look at the role of trusteeship in a world dominated by master trusts and professional trustees, the importance of the member voice, and whether fiduciary duty has been interpreted far too narrowly, acting as a barrier to innovation. At its heart, this episode asks a simple (but maybe) uncomfortable question: who is the pensions system really for and what would it take for trustees to be braver in acting for members?

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Nico and Darren chat to Kim Gubler. Kim wears many hats in the pensions industry, among them Managing Director of KGC Associates, President of PASA, and is an independent trustee Director of the Smart Pension mastertrust. Another wide ranging conversation that, as well as talking about horses and pigeons (only on the V-FM podcast....), focuses on the importance of elevating consideration of administration to the level of investments when it comes to assessing value for money, treating it as central to member outcomes rather than something that happens in the background. We talk about the evolution of KGC, PASA, and problems in relying on SLAs to assess value for money. We also chat about Kim's work on small pots and the recent feasibility study looking at quick ways of addressing what is an increasingly pressing issue.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico chat to SuperRatings' Kirby Rappell. SuperRatings has been conducting value for money assessments in Australia for 17 years, starting out as the first firm dedicated to super fund research. We hear from Kirby about how the Aussie's do V-FM and look at learnings and insights that could benefit UK thinking. And we discuss the Pound for Pound initiative that SuperRatings has been leading with a number of large UK schemes.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico chat to Willis Towers Watson's Simon Eagle. Simon has been instrumental in the development of CDC in the UK, being the scheme actuary for the Royal Mail CDC scheme. We chatted through the evolution of CDC in the UK, the original ideas behind defined ambition, the introduction of the Royal Mail scheme, and what next for CDC, including retirement-only CDC. We also discussed the challenges of introducing retirement-only CDC and how some of these challenges can be addressed in the context of how people turn their pension pot into a retirement income. We found out how Simon got into pensions and, of course, what value for money means to him.

Happy New Year to all our listeners! In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Nico and Darren welcome 2026 in what will be (another) busy year for pensions. As well as chatting about the festive season (and Nico’s house fire - don’t worry all ended up ok!), we take a look at what to expect in 2026... and have an impromptu discussion about the Pensions Schemes Bill and Fiduciary duty among a host of other things.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions Nico and Darren (slightly croaky and end-of-year tired) chat glow-in-the-dark dog walks, North London derby emotions and the Pensions Expert Annual Conference at Pennyhill Park… before diving head-first into the Budget and the chaos that surrounded it. We unpack Darren’s recent comment piece in Pensions Expert, the OBR leak that turned out to be more cock-up than conspiracy, and why pre-Budget “kite flying” left real people scrambling over tax-free cash decisions. From ISA tweaks to salary sacrifice caps and frozen tax thresholds, we ask what any of this says about trust, growth and whether the government actually has a story to tell. We also loop back to interviews with three of our World Pensions Summit guests (Tina Fordham, Amlan Roy and Sonja Lund) and link the Budget madness to the bigger themes of volatility, broken forecasting and the end of the “great moderation”.

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico chat to Maurits van Joolingen, Managing Director Climate Scenarios and Sustainability, at Ortec Finance. This is part of a series of episodes recorded at the World Pensions Summit in early November. A proper climate and scenario analysis geek out! We also discuss the news covering: the Budget, the state pension triple lock, the FCA pension scheme's investments in UK assets (or lack of), and Smart Pension landing the £580m WS stakeholder pension scheme.