The following are active research working parties overseen by the IFoA’s the Pensions Research subcommittee.
All members are encouraged to volunteer for a research working party. If you have your own ideas for member-led research you would like to pursue, please contact our Practice Communities Team below or refer to our Guidance for Research Working Parties (562 KB PDF).
Members interested in volunteering for a research working party should check our volunteer vacancies.
IFoA Pensions Board has launched a new working party dedicated to exploring the challenges and opportunities presented by ageing populations.
This initiative aims to leverage the collective expertise of the international actuarial community to address one of the most pressing global demographic trends: longer life expectancies combined with declining fertility rates. As these trends continue, they are placing unprecedented pressure on state support systems, retirement schemes, healthcare infrastructure, and insurance markets worldwide.
The working party will serve as a platform for actuaries across the globe to share insights, research, and best practices related to ageing populations. Through collaborative exploration, the group seeks to identify actionable strategies and solutions for mitigating risks and enhancing opportunities arising from demographic changes.
This is an area of interest for many countries, each at their own stage on the demographic journey, with different welfare systems and structures in place. The working party aims to investigate and compare the impact of ageing populations globally, using a representative sample of countries from different regions. The countries chosen could include, but are not limited to, India, Singapore, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, the Nordics and mainland Europe. Later work could then expand on this further.
Chair: Alexandra Miles
Established: 2025
Collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes are a new kind of pension scheme for the UK, featuring fixed contributions, investing collectively, and paying variable income for life.
CDC schemes bring advantages for workers and employers over other pension designs and also bring new challenges for pension design and management. Actuaries have a large part to play in this work.
CDC schemes were first enabled in the UK by the Pension Schemes Act 2021, with further variations due to be enabled in future. The UK’s first CDC scheme was approved by the regulator in 2023.
The IFoA aims to aid the development of UK CDC pensions in the public interest.
The working party works to support this aim, including by:
Chair: Keith McInally
Established: 2018
This working party seeks to explore whether a default approach to dealing with divorce reports is possible. And, if not, to create a guideline setting out what is and is not appropriate. It also seeks to understand whether there could be a more efficient approach to dealing with pensions providers.
Chair: Ian Sharpe
Established: 2024
The Personal Financial Planning Working Party looks at how actuaries’ skills can be used to improve personal financial planning among individuals.
Our key objectives include:
Chair: Andrew Storey
Established: 2020
Objectives
This working party will build on the work undertaken by the previous dynamic discount rate working party, including:
About
Chair: TBC
Established: 2025
For more information about any of our practice areas, please email the Communities Engagement Team