V-FM: The Pensions Podcast

V-FM Pensions #156: Standard Life's workplace decumulation guru Esther Hawley

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.
 

V-FM Pensions #155: Listener Q+A part two

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. 

V-FM Pensions #154: Listener Q+A (part one...)

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?

V-FM Pensions #153: WPS Advisory's Simon Chrystal returns

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.

V-FM Pensions #152: TPT's Philip Smith and Ruari Grant

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 🎧 

V-FM Pensions #151: LCP's Sam Cobley

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.

V-FM Pensions #150: now:pensions' Samantha Gould

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.

V-FM Pensions #149: Nico and Darren discuss the news

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, hosts Darren and Nico take a meander through some recent pension news stories.
The pair discuss:
Reform’s proposal to consolidate the LGPS into a single UK-focused sovereign wealth fund and shift new entrants from DB to DC, questioning both the investment logic and the politics;
the government’s VFM framework, highlighting a core tension between a system measuring capital growth with policy prioritising retirement income outcomes;
the unintended consequences of policy in motion; from salary sacrifice reforms that may disproportionately affect lower-paid workers, to scale tests in the Pension Schemes Bill that could shut out innovators.

V-FM Pensions #148: David Butcher revisited

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.

V-FM Pensions #147: The podcast's response to CP26/1

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:
This isn’t Value for Money it’s a performance regime: The consultation has morphed into a capital-performance test with a costs add-on. Most of the “value” bits (service, engagement, member outcomes) have been kicked into the long grass.
It risks sabotaging the retirement-income agenda: Government wants schemes to deliver better retirement outcomes, but the VFM framework measures success like everyone’s just cashing out. That’s a recipe for schemes doing the wrong thing in the run-up to retirement.
The penalties are so harsh they’ll force providers to copy each other: Nobody is going to take investment risk, innovate, or deviate from the herd. The safest strategy becomes: hug the benchmark
Mansion House and VFM are pulling in opposite directions: Policy says: invest in private markets and the UK economy. VFM says: don’t you dare underperform your peers. Put those together and you get one outcome: providers won’t touch the assets government wants them to buy.
Costs and charges are still a mess, just with nicer spreadsheets: The consultation tries to build credibility through multiple “net” performance numbers, but exemptions, hidden costs, and inconsistent definitions mean the figures still won’t add up in the real world.
The whole thing dodges the real problem... people aren’t saving enough: VFM is starting to look like the policy equivalent of jangling keys in front of a baby, distracting everyone from the uncomfortable truth that adequacy and contributions matter more than almost anything in the framework.