In this week’s episode of the podcast, we speak to Tegs Harding, trustee chair of the Legal and General master trust’s investments committee.

Investment has been high on the master trust’s agenda. Tegs and her colleagues realise that members are better off when they take more risk for longer – and that has been a big theme of the changes they have been making over the last few years. They have introduced equities from earlier in the lifecycle, considering the length of members’ de-risking glidepaths and introducing private markets.

Tegs touches on the live discussion L&G are having around private markets in retirement – and why knowing only part of a member’s overall financial picture is a challenge.

More broadly, we talk quite a lot about investment advice and guidance, and Tegs shares some fascinating themes and observations from L&G’s retirement research with members, some of which may surprise you. We also touch on the impact AI could have on how members interact with their pensions.

Tegs talks about the L&G master trust’s net zero journey and why it’s vital for master trusts to look beyond paper-based decarbonization to build resilience and have real world impact.

It’s a great episode – enjoy!

This week on the podcast, we chat to Jo Sharples, chief investment officer for Aon’s DC solutions. Jo shares her wisdom about investment, revealing her ‘sleep at night strategy’ – we love this idea.

We discuss the importance of cutting out the noise and sticking to your guns in times of short term volatility.

Jo explains why she has just made an allocation to long-dated government bonds in the growth phase – despite being very pro equity in general – and explains why government bonds are very much on her radar.

She has a challenge to the industry on net zero: have we done the easy things and saved the harder choices for later? Are we making enough real progress? If not, what needs to change?

We also discuss private markets, and Jo shares the types of assets the Aon master trust is looking at – and why it’s important to have different risk/return focuses for people at different stages of their lives. Listen to the podcast to find out exactly what they’re looking at.

We loved catching up with Jo. Enjoy the episode!

Lorna Blyth, head of investment proposition for Aegon UK, joins Dave and Louise for this week’s podcast. We learn about Lorna’s career path, from dreams of art college to working her way up through the ranks of a pension provider and into investment – with a lot of hard work and exams completed along the way.

Lorna is responsible for investment proposition for Aegon's DC workplace business from the master trust to the contract based book and also looks after the fund of funds business. That’s a lot of members and assets. Investing on behalf of one million plus customers with over 100 billion pounds’ worth of assets is a big job – and Lorna and her colleagues continually working to improve outcomes and aim for strong long‑term returns.

The team has spent the last two years looking at private markets – and has recently introduced LTAFs. Lorna tells us about how she is using them to pull different levers for members at different stages in their glidepaths.

‘I love my job’, Lorna told us – we find out what aspects of investment excite her, as well as what changes in the DC world are inspiring her at the moment.

A note on continuity: we spoke to Lorna in the autumn of 2025 – so when we talk about ‘next year’, this actually means 2026. Hope that isn’t too confusing for listeners!