The following are active research working parties overseen by the IFoA’s the Pensions Research subcommittee.
Volunteer for a working party
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.
Research working parties
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.
About
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:
- developing thinking in CDC and other collective risk sharing schemes
- engaging with external stakeholders such as DWP and the regulator
- commenting externally on CDC
About
Chair: Keith McInally
Established: 2018
The Working Party will provide expert support to the IFoA Pensions Board on issues relating to public sector pensions, and will help to ensure that the voice of actuaries is heard in this important area.
This will include identifying and responding to consultations, monitoring industry and policy developments, and considering professional and reputational issues affecting actuaries working in public sector pensions.
The group may also undertake research and develop thought leadership, as appropriate, to support the profession and the wider public interest.
About
Chair: Melanie Durrant
Established: 2026
This working party’s focus is on the call to action, and what can be done to address the pensions gap moving forward.
About
Chair: Al Miles
Established: 2022
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.
About
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.
Key objectives
Our key objectives include:
- considering how actuaries can acquire the necessary skills to work directly with individuals
- reviewing how actuarial skills can be used to support the delivery of financial advice
- drawing on our experience of working with pension scheme trustees and sponsoring employers to contribute to public policy discussions related to personal financial planning
About
Chair: Andrew Storey
Established: 2020
Objectives
This working party will build on the work undertaken by the previous dynamic discount rate working party, including:
- Addressing/investigating the limitations that were acknowledged by the previous working party. This includes consideration of using a stochastic modelling approach and the complexities caused by pension increases that are subject to caps and collars.
- Further consideration of practical issues and challenges in implementing this approach that may limit the effectiveness of using a dynamic discount rate approach.
- Investigation of the benefits/drawbacks of using a dynamic discount rate approach in run-on scenarios, having regard for the potential implications of the 2023 Mansion House proposals.
About
Chair: TBC
Established: 2025