Current Issues in Pensions

Jonathan is Deputy Director at IFS and Head of Retirement, Savings, and Ageing. He is a Co-Principal Investigator of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and a co-Director of the Pensions Review, a review of the UK pension system and of the future of financial security in retirement. Most of his work focuses on understanding pensions, savings, economic activity at older ages, and interactions with government policy.

Chair

Gemma Cayton is a Director in the retirement practice at WTW, where she has 14 years’ experience advising pension schemes. She qualified as a Fellow of the IFoA in 2020 and has been an active volunteer with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries since 2024. 

Gemma currently serves as Chair of the Pensions Lifelong Learning Committee and is a member of the Pensions Board. She also contributes to the profession as an actuarial exam marker. 

In her role at WTW, Gemma primarily advises trustee clients across the full lifespan of pension schemes, from funding valuations to actuarial factors, and through to the assessment and implementation of endgame solutions. Her experience includes a range of complex and nonstandard projects, such as GMP equalisation and pension risk transfer exercises. 

Alongside her actuarial work, Gemma is a people manager, leading a team of 10 colleagues and holding operational responsibility for a wider group across five regional offices. 

Steve Bale is Head of Predictive Analytics at Munich Re UK Life Branch, where he enjoys delivering data and modelling insights across behavioural and demographic topics. He has recently taken on the Chair of the CMI’s Mortality Projections Committee, with primary responsibility for maintaining the Projection Model, and providing new insights and research on population mortality modelling to subscribers. Steve is also a member of the CMI’s Management Committee.

Glyn Bradley qualified as a Fellow in 2007 and has been volunteering for the IFoA since 2017, first as chair of the Pensions Dashboards Working Party, and then as Chair of the Pensions Board’s Pensions Research Sub-Committee, which instigates and supports our member-led pensions working parties. A member of the Pensions Board since 2021, he began his two year term as Chair of the board in July 2025. In his day job he is a Director in WTW’s Pensions Technical Unit.

Jenny is head of Pensions Governance Consulting at WTW. She is a qualified actuary and has supported pensions clients for over 20 years. She leads a team of governance experts and practitioners to support clients across all areas of governance, board effectiveness and risk management.
 
This includes a wide range of projects such as:

• Helping clients to review their risk management approach, including risk registers, dashboards and tools; risk management frameworks and policies; and risk system maturity and controls effectiveness reviews
• Supporting schemes to get ready for the changes entailed by TPR’s General Code, including conducting gap analyses and working with the client to fill policy, practice and strategy gaps
• Delivering governance and board effectiveness reviews across operational and behavioural aspects of improving performance, efficiency, enjoyment and outcomes

Jenny was awarded ‘Adviser of the Year 2024’ at the prestigious Professional Pensions ‘Women In Pensions Awards’.

David Gordon is Senior Review Actuary at the IFoA and leads the Thematic Review Programme. Before joining the IFoA, he was a defined benefit pensions consultant and scheme actuary with 30 years of experience. He also had a leading role within his firm on regulatory matters.

Mark’s actuarial career has been primarily in consulting, advising trustees and employers of DB schemes, including as a scheme actuary. He has sat on the Main Committee of the ACA.

Mark has also worked for in-house executive teams supporting the trustees of very large schemes, integrating inputs from the trustees’ actuarial, legal, investment and covenant advisors to enable the trustees to make strategic decisions. He ran projects on funding plans, security arrangements, risk transfer transactions and the trustees’ responses to the sponsors’ corporate activity.

Since joining the FRC in 2022, Mark’s work has been mainly on updates to TAS 300. He has also been heavily involved in preparing the guidance for actuaries on retrospective confirmations of historic rule amendments. 

Chris is the Head of Macro and co-Head of Asset Allocation at L&G Asset Management. He leads a team of strategists and economists that is responsible for the primary macroeconomic and asset class views across the firm. He is also a portfolio manager for L&G’s retirement income multi-asset and multi-asset target return strategies. He joined L&G in 2014 from BNP Paribas Investment Partners where he worked as a senior economist and strategist within the multi-asset solutions group. Prior to that, he worked as an economist within monetary analysis at the Bank of England.

Matt Smith is an actuary and Partner at Mercer with more than 19 years’ experience guiding trustees and corporate clients through a diverse array of complex strategy situations. With a member-centric approach, Matt is dedicated to ensuing clients optimal outcomes tailored to their unique circumstances. He leads Mercer’s surplus and endgame strategy group.

His experiences span both large and small schemes, with a track record of supporting clients through risk transfer processes, defining run on strategies and unlocking surplus value to benefit all stakeholders.

Christopher is a lawyer specialising in advising occupational pension schemes on a wide range of issues, and with a particular focus on pension risk transfer and innovative solutions.

Mark Tinsley is a Scheme Actuary at Barnett Waddingham with over 14 years’ experience advising trustees and sponsors on DB funding and strategy. As Barnett Waddingham’s lead for the new funding code, he supports actuaries across the firm with the full range of code related challenges – from small to large schemes, and from straightforward to more complex cases – while also engaging regularly with The Pensions Regulator. Mark contributes to industry thought leadership as a member of the IFoA’s Pension Research Sub committee and the ACA’s Pension Committee.

Sarah is an actuary at XPS Group, with 9 years’ experience advising trustee and corporate clients on strategy and complex projects. Qualifying in 2023, Sarah has previously been a tech lead for XPS and currently leads XPS’ run-on solutions team.

David is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, serving as Deputy Chair of TPR’s EDI Steering Committee and a Public Sector Equality Duty champion.  

He is Director of Trusteeship, Administration & DB Supervision, and a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience spanning pensions regulation, financial analysis, and corporate restructuring.

David has led on strategic transformation across defined benefit schemes, trusteeship, and administration. He has played a key role in the development of policy and guidance, most recently the new DB funding regulations, code and accompanying covenant guidance. David has played a significant role in TPR’s transformation towards a more prudential style of regulation.