The Pensions Asset Allocation Summit

A series of short, sharp presentations from leading practitioners.

Each speaker will make a clear, evidence-based case for why their proposed asset class deserves a larger role in future pension portfolios.

Presenters will each address three questions:

1. What structural forces shape the opportunity?
2. How does this asset behave in a whole-portfolio context?
3. What practical constraints matter most for UK schemes?

• • Presentation 1: Private Credit – Structural Tailwind or Crowded Trade?
    Private credit has expanded rapidly as banks retreat from corporate and infrastructure lending. This session examines whether the growth is sustainable, how higher base rates reshape return expectations, and where underwriting discipline is holding – or slipping. Our speaker will explore the role of private credit in cashflow-negative schemes, the liquidity risks trustees often underestimate, and the governance structures needed to avoid style drift in a crowded market.
  • Presentation 2: Infrastructure 2.0 – Digital, Transition & Adaptation
    Presented by James Harraway, Head of Value Creation, GLIL
    Infrastructure is no longer a niche alternative but a core component of long‑term resilience. This session outlines the next generation of investable infrastructure: digital networks, energy transition assets, water systems, and climate‑adaptation projects. Our speaker will show how these assets behave under whole‑portfolio thinking, why they offer inflation‑linked cashflows in a world of volatile rates, and how UK schemes can access them efficiently through pooled vehicles and co‑investment platforms.
  • Presentation 3: Insurance‑Linked Securities – Investing in Climate Volatility
    With climate‑driven catastrophes rising in frequency and severity, demand for risk transfer is growing. This session explains how catastrophe bonds and other ILS instruments offer uncorrelated returns, how model risk is evolving, and what investors need to understand about liquidity, event clustering, and the role of reinsurance markets. Our speaker will position ILS as a potential diversifier in portfolios increasingly exposed to climate transition and physical risks.
  • Presentation 4: Liquid Hedge Fund Strategies – Diversification When it’s needed most
    As cross-asset correlations rise and macro conditions turn volatile, liquid hedge fund strategies are re-emerging as sources of diversification and resilient returns. This session highlights where repeatable alpha and uncorrelated performance remain across macro, trend-following, relative-value and event-driven approaches, and how they behave during quite drawdowns, inflation shocks and stress and shifting rate regimes. Our speaker will outline evidence for return persistence, their role in stregthening portfolio resilience, and the governance issues that matter around transparency, liquidity and manager oversight. 
  • Presentation 5: Natural Capital and Biodiversity – The Next Frontier of Real Assets
    As climate and nature risks become financially material, natural capital is emerging as a new investable category. This session demystifies biodiversity credits, regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, and water rights, explaining how policy frameworks and corporate demand are creating new revenue streams. Our speaker will discuss how natural capital fits into a diversified real‑assets allocation and what due‑diligence challenges investors must overcome.
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  • Presentation 6: Active Equity in the Post‑Index Era
    After a decade of passive dominance, structural shifts such as market concentration, geopolitical fragmentation, and the rise of intangible‑driven business models are challenging the logic of broad indexation. Our speaker will argue that active equity selection may regain importance as dispersion rises and benchmarks become less representative of economic reality. S/he will outline where active managers can add value, how AI‑enabled research is changing the game, and what this means for equity allocations in UK DB, DC and LGPS portfolios.