Bringing people together

Welcome to the second edition of Viewpoint for 2024, which – as well as covering the latest pensions news – reveals a very exciting development for members: the launch of the new member area of the PLSA website.

“Technology is best when it brings people together,” the social media entrepreneur Matt Mullenweg once said, and this is the intention with our new digital enhancement to member benefits.

In an industry tasked with securing people’s financial futures, pulling together is essential if we are to best meet the changing needs of today’s savers. And this sense of community is central to our new offering.

Now – as well as through our showstopping events – we’re giving members the ability to connect and interact with the PLSA community all year round.

The new digital space is your one-stop-shop for exclusive member resources including practical guides, reports, live Q&As, videos, networking and discussion. Members can chat about the latest topics in pensions, as well as having PLSA policy experts on hand to answer all your burning questions.

We’ve seen time and again through our policy and advocacy work how collaborating with members achieves tangible results. The enhanced communication possible in the new member area will strengthen our ability to amplify your voice to policymakers and regulators, and reinforce our collective mission to help everyone achieve a better income in retirement.

"Pulling together is essential if we are to best meet the changing needs of today’s savers."

This could be through your involvement in our work looking at how pension funds can invest more in UK growth, or in defining our vision for 2035 – both covered in this issue of Viewpoint.

Or it could be through talking to other professionals facing similar operational issues, whether that’s in DC, DB, Master Trust schemes, the LGPS, or pension providers.

This new benefit will be open and accessible to all PLSA members once it’s live, but we’ll be inviting members in groups over the initial weeks after launch so we can highlight content relevant to you and provide technical support to members who need it.

Focus on local authorities

In this edition, we focus on the local authority pensions community and take a deep dive into some of the unique challenges facing the sector ahead of our Local Authority Conference taking place in June.

We hope many of you will join us to hear from keynote speakers Simon Hoare MP, Minister for Local Government and Lewis Goodall, LBC Presenter and Co-Presenter of The News Agents podcast; and Susie Dent, Lexicographer from Countdown, as the after-dinner speaker.

Topics on the agenda will include the current government’s vision for the LGPS, the implications of the general election, the long-term future from the scheme’s perspective, the recruitment and retention challenge, pensions dashboards, the Retirement Living Standards, and plenty more.

Spotlight on social issues

Embracing technology is just one of the ways we’re growing as an association. This year we’re looking at a range of societal issues, including the application of AI, the necessity of taking climate action, and the huge benefits of promoting and delivering equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

We’ve partnered with Climate Action for Associations (CAFA), which is an organisation that brings membership bodies like ours together to tackle the climate change emergency, harnessing the collective power and influence of the membership sector to accelerate the transition to net zero.

We’re also working with Powered by Diversity to strengthen our EDI strategy. This includes internal training, an EDI organisational health check, leadership alignment, reviewing the employee base in terms of EDI, and the identification of gaps.

These themes, as well as the changes we’re seeing in the pensions, investment and savings industry, will feed into our review of the PLSA strategy as the current one draws to a close at the end of this year. We’ll bring you more on future plans in due course.

For now, I’ll leave you with a reminder to explore the new and exclusive member area. I’m excited to see how this latest enhancement of membership benefits will serve our community. The pensions sector is evolving, and we are ready.

Go to the member area