Past Event
Consultants Conference
- Date: March 19, 2025
- Venue: Capital Group Offices
AIMSE Europe Consultants Conference
The AIMSE Consultant Conference is quite a unique event, in that it’s the only conference (at least that I’m aware of), that is entirely curated for those doing Consultant Relations roles within asset managers. Last year, the Consultant Conference agenda focused on how consultants are diversifying away from pensions and expanding into other client channels like Wealth, Endowments & Foundation and Insurance. This year, we thought we would go back to the core of consultants’ businesses and focus on pensions again.
Our theme was is “Into the Unknown”. It does feel like every year we talk about the challenges facing the asset management industry, but with DC and LGPS consultations on-going, government-pressure for greater investment in UK “Productive Finance”, anti-ESG discourse from the US, market volatility, continued fee pressure and lots more….there are a lot of known unknowns out there.
Opening: Key Trends Survey
As always, we started the agenda with the output of the Key Investment Trends survey. This survey is based on over 30 hours of interviews with UK-based investment consultants and OCIO managers held during Q1 2025, which is quite the undertaking. While acknowledging the turbulent macro backdrop that Q1 brought (notably US tariffs and the related market volatility), the findings were focused on long-term institutional investment trends. Key themes that emerged include the continued structural shift towards alternative credit and decline in public equity allocations, the evolution of how asset owners define ESG, DEI and Sustainability, the potential impact of the Mansion House Reforms and continued growth of OCIO.
Session 1: Lightning Talks
We then had three short “lightning sessions”. The format of these shorter sessions is always popular, but we were rather ambitious in trying to cover Sustainability, Investment Governance and OCIO and then a brief history of how the investment consultant landscape has evolved, and what the consultants of the future may look like. Thankfully Jordan Griffiths from Barnett Waddingham, Nick Lewis from Redington and Clive Gilchrist from BESTrustees managed to stick to time and each gave the audience a thorough overview of their topic.
Session 2: DC, LGPS & Global Insights
This was followed by a detailed discussion on all things DC with Jo Sharples from Aon, Jonathan Parker from Redington and James Monk from Fidelity, moderated by Victoria Panormo from Aviva. To gain a slightly different perspective from across the pond, Nate Palmer, investment consultant at Wilshire, gave the room a virtual run-down of priorities for US consultants and their clients. Tony English then provided an update on the LGPS sector focussing on what the Fit for the Future consultation may mean for the LGPS Funds and Pools. Rather presciently, Tony noted that as no Pools had volunteered to merge, it may not be surprising if the government mandates forced pooling, which of course we are now seeing happen to ACCESS and Brunel.
Closing: Fireside Chat on Culture
Finally, the afternoon ended with a fireside chat between Jo Holden – Global Head of Investment Research & Consulting at Mercer and Mandy Kirby – Co-CEO of City Hive. Jo and Mandy had a far-reaching discussion on how investment consultants can assess culture and DEI, and integrate this into their analysis of managers, and what does “great” looks like?
From the names mentioned above, it’s clear that AIMSE is able to attract an incredible calibre of presenters, and we are always so grateful for the investment consultants and professional trustees who give their precious time to present to us.
Pippa Rudling – Consultants Conference Co-Chair