V-FM: The Pensions Podcast

The podcast from Darren Philp and Nico Aspinall talking all things pensions and investments.

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Chatting all things pensions and investments

 

'V-FM'... It's the podcast you've been waiting for...

 

Darren Philp and Nico Aspinall having a chat about pensions, investment and anything else that takes their fancy. Join us for an hour of geekery and topical discussion.

 

Got a topic you'd like us to cover... get in touch at vfmpensions@gmail.com

Episodes

Friday Jan 26, 2024

In this season opener, Darren and Nico chat to Scottish Widows' Pete Glancy and Rob Cochran.
We welcomed Rob back to the pod to talk about his Mountain Warehouse rucksack, and Pete joined us to talk snooker and fine wines.
In the podcast we look forward to the year ahead and chat about the importance of communicating effectively. We talk Big Zuu and pensions attention, pot for life, the pensions mirror, understanding members, and, of course, value for money and consolidation.
 

Friday Dec 15, 2023

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, Nico and Darren look back on season one of the podcast, picking out some of the key themes and talking points that have been raised by our fantastic guests over the past year. We cover value for money, dashboards, at retirement, Mansion House reforms, small pots and a whole lot more!
 
Seasons greetings to all our listeners! We'll be back with season two in 2024...!!
 

Friday Dec 08, 2023

In this episode of V-FM Pensions, Nico and Darren chat to former Australian politician and now Super trustee, Nick Sherry. Nick squeezes in a cheeky reference to the cricket, but discussion quickly moves on to Aussie Rules (phew...!).
Nick was Australia's first Superannuation Minister and has been instrumental in shaping the highly-regarded Australian system. We talk about all the topics you'd expect us to discuss and more: certainly lots of lessons for UK pensions from our friends down under.

Friday Dec 01, 2023

In this episode of V-FM Darren and Nico chat to Paul Watson who has had a distinguished career shaping and helping deliver the Australian Superannuation system.
We ban Paul from talking about cricket... but we cover loads of ground including illiquid investments, the mansion house reforms, dashboards, admin, net benefit and value for money, and pot for life to name just a few topics. Paul's visit was incredibly timely given the Chancellor's Autumn Statement announcements and it was great to hear Paul's perspective and insights on what this all might mean.

Friday Nov 24, 2023

In this episode of V-FM: The Pensions Podcast Darren and Nico have a great chat with Railpen's Caroline Escott. Caroline wears many different hats and, in addition to being a senior investment adviser at Railpen, is Chair of NextGen and a trustee director for the Standard Life mastertrust.
We, of course, discuss aspects of the autumn statement. But we also discuss stewardship, responsible investment and Caroline's fantastic work with Next Gen.  

Friday Nov 17, 2023

In this episode of V-FM, Nico and Darren talk to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and governance specialist Uche Enemchukwu. Uche is a passionate employee benefits champion and co-founded Nelu, a US-based employee benefits consultancy. We chat the FCA diversity and inclusion consultation, research showing 'wasted' spend by employers through their employee benefit strategies, Labour's proposed pensions review and a whole host of things covering employee benefits and DE&I. We also chat a bit about value for money.
 
 

Friday Nov 10, 2023

In this episode Darren and Nico chat to the People's Partnership's pensions policy guru Tim Gosling. Tim is a real policy expert, loves getting stuck into the detail and offers his views on a wide range of topics including the Covid inquiry, productive finance, small pots, pension levies, at retirement, and costs and charges. We also ask Tim what value for money means to him. 

Friday Nov 03, 2023

In the longest episode so far of V-FM: the Pensions Podcast, Darren and Nico are joined by Richard Smith for 90 or so minutes of pure pensions dashboards delight. Richard kindly surprises Darren and Nico with a gift, gives an amazing (and unexpected) answer to the value for money question and chats through the latest dashboard developments, including highlighting the findings from his recent dashboard tour of Europe. Richard's commitment, energy and passion towards pension dashboards is infectious.

Friday Oct 27, 2023

In this episode of V-FM: The Pensions Podcast, Darren and Nico chat to Will Martindale, co-founder of recently launched Canbury insights. We talk about Will's career, including at the UN PRI and a stint at Oxfam, and why he decided to co-found and launch Canbury. We discuss geopolitics, regulation, biodiversity, the MPs pension scheme and pension credit. And, of course, we chat about what value for money means to Will.

Friday Oct 20, 2023

In this episode of V-FM: The Pensions Podcast, Nico and Darren welcome Margaret Snowdon, OBE to the pod. Margaret has an amazing pension career and continues to be very active in the industry, most notably through her work on leading the good fight against the scammers. Margaret, just back from a break in South Africa where she was tracking leopards, covers a lot of ground. We chat about the new financial advice task force she is involved with, consolidation, risk and Margaret's work on tackling scams including more recent work she has been doing on investment scams.

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