Developments in the Local Government Pension Scheme: asset pooling and beyond

Five years of asset pooling in the LGPS: what’s been achieved, what’s next and how can investment managers position themselves for success in the LGPS market?

In recent years the £290bn Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has undergone significant change to the way it invests, as a result of major Government reforms in 2015 and 2016.

The reforms included a requirement on local authority pension funds to pool their assets into a handful of large pools of at least £25bn in size, with responsibility for investment implementation transferred to the pools. Alongside this, the investment rules for LGPS funds were deregulated, giving greater discretion to local authority pension schemes funds in relation to the exercise of their investment powers, giving them the ability to access a wider range of investments and risk management tools. The government has, in addition, retained some control over LGPS investment by issuing mandatory guidance to funds on investment strategies.

In this webinar, the IA in conjunction with Burges Salmon and representatives of four of the LGPS Pool companies, will discuss how the LGPS investment market has developed since the advent of pooling.

Topics covered will include:

• The investment strategies and Strategic Asset Allocation that the Pools are implementing on behalf of their clients
• Procurement of investment managers – what do the Pools look for in external managers?
• The Pools’ approaches to ESG integration and Stewardship
• The Pools’ approaches to investment in private markets
• The experience of transitioning assets into pools