Welcome to DCIF in Depth!

We’re excited to launch a new season of the DCIF podcast, a mini-series hosted by Louise Farrand alongside our new co-host, Lindsay Nickerson, chair of the DCIF and institutional director at Nordea. Over the course of the series, we’ll explore the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of DC, from tokenisation and AI to innovation across pensions and helping to deliver better outcomes for members.

You can listen to DCIF in Depth and explore our latest DC research at https://dcif.co.uk/.In this episode of DCIF in Depth, hosts Louise Farrand and Lindsay Nickerson are joined by Theo Golden of Baillie Gifford and Nick Cox of Mobius Life to explore what tokenisation is and why it matters for pension funds.

Tokenisation and the future of pensions: unlocking efficiency, personalisation and innovation

Theo and Nick explain how tokenisation can create a shared, secure record of ownership, reducing friction across financial markets and enabling assets to interact more efficiently. They discuss the potential benefits for pension schemes, including broader investment opportunities, greater operational efficiency, and the possibility of delivering more personalised member outcomes at scale.

The conversation also covers ESG considerations, the environmental impact of blockchain technology, emerging use cases, and the practical steps pension funds can take to begin their tokenisation journey.

This episode offers an accessible introduction to one of the most talked-about innovations in investment infrastructure and its potential implications for the future of pensions.

In this episode, hosts Louise Farrand and Dave Whitehair sit down with Ben Lewis, head of Mercer's investment DC workplace proposition, for a wide-ranging conversation about how Mercer's master trust is building out its investment strategy for the long term.

Ben covers the move into private markets, how Mercer is thinking about the full member journey from accumulation through to retirement, and why getting the structure of the LTAF right matters so much. They also get into progress on sustainability, the impact of consolidation following the Cardano acquisition, and how Value for Money rules are shaping decision making across the market.

The conversation rounds off with Ben's thoughts on venture capital as a future allocation for DC members and the role of AI in helping members engage with their pensions.

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we enjoyed speaking to Ben!

In this week’s episode of the podcast, we speak to Tegs Harding, trustee chair of the Legal and General master trust’s investments committee.

Investment has been high on the master trust’s agenda. Tegs and her colleagues realise that members are better off when they take more risk for longer – and that has been a big theme of the changes they have been making over the last few years. They have introduced equities from earlier in the lifecycle, considering the length of members’ de-risking glidepaths and introducing private markets.

Tegs touches on the live discussion L&G are having around private markets in retirement – and why knowing only part of a member’s overall financial picture is a challenge.

More broadly, we talk quite a lot about investment advice and guidance, and Tegs shares some fascinating themes and observations from L&G’s retirement research with members, some of which may surprise you. We also touch on the impact AI could have on how members interact with their pensions.

Tegs talks about the L&G master trust’s net zero journey and why it’s vital for master trusts to look beyond paper-based decarbonization to build resilience and have real world impact.

It’s a great episode – enjoy!