Nico Aspinall
Providers and pension schemes
Getting ahead
When all the business is able to do is deliver today, how do you worry about the future? How do you put in place the organisation, governance and operating environment to enable you to gain the benefits of scale, when your focus is dealing with the business you run today? Constant regulatory changes, pushing paper, how can you break the cycle and get ahead of your own growth and enhance the value you offer to members?
We work in an industry with so much talk: post-retirement solutions have been on the shelf for years; custody platforms enable more sophisticated investment but remain a pipe-dream for many; climate change commitments made but little progress made filling in the actual transition pathway. Organisations seem to spend longer writing about their governance and strategies than actually executing them.
We suffer from time poverty and inexperience. Time poverty because all change requires taking people away from their day jobs and its very hard to stop them performing against their objectives do spend the time necessary to envision the changes you need. Inexperience because the journey to scale is new to all of us. Well not quite all.
As the CIO of one of the largest pension schemes in the country I have delivered strategic, operational and governance changes to capture the benefits of scale; alongside pioneering the approach of sustainability. I can help to get you ahead.
My skills and experience
As CIO of the People's Pension I created the low-cost approach to providing returns to members while integrating Responsible Investment and Climate Change management into the strategy. At its highest I was managing £17bn for more than 5 million members using a custody platform for added flexibility.
As Head of DC Investment Consulting at WTW I supported the largest DC schemes in the country as they made changes to their line ups, grappled with freedom and choice, and selected and implemented manager and platform changes.
I have worked in-house for Trusts, in asset management start-ups and as a consultant. I know the best strategy is not the one that looks great on paper but is the one your key personnel buy into and commit to execute.
How I can help
From reviewing your documents as "critical friend" to joining your project team as a secondee there are a range of different approaches to getting best value out of a consulting relationship with me. What works best for you will come down to your culture and your existing strategy and resources.
I can be flexible - so long as the work is interesting I'm interested!