Nest Insight’s annual conference returned this summer to share research insights and foster expert debate on issues around retirement and broader financial security. Our sixth annual conference brought together academics, industry, policymakers and other experts working towards long-term financial security for low-and moderate-income workers.

Welcome address | Watch session

Speakers
  • Will Sandbrook, Nest Insight

Panel discussion | Watch session

UK pension regulations mandate minimum pension contributions to be made into an individual’s pension by both employers and employees. Beyond this there are a wide range of approaches to supporting employees to save enough to achieve an adequate outcome in retirement through different pension contributions structures. Employers are also increasingly thinking about how to support broader employee financial wellbeing, particularly in the current economic context. But, to what extent is it an employer’s role to support their employees’ financial security? In what ways could an employer have most impact? And what are the barriers to employers doing more?

In this session we shared some early findings from our research programme, supported by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, exploring opportunities for innovation and voluntary increases in employer contributions to pensions and other financial workplace benefits, and featured a range of different employer perspectives on these questions.

Speakers
    • Moderator: Matthew Blakstad, Nest Insight
    • Alyshia Harrington-Clark, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA)
    • Jack Jones, Trade Unions Congress (TUC)
    • Jo Phillips, Nest Insight

Panel discussion | Watch session

The UK’s auto enrolment programme has created near-universal participation in the private pensions system, dramatically expanding access to one aspect of wealth-building for low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve increasingly focused on supporting short-term financial resilience through tools to support emergency saving. But what about everything else in between? How should we think about the transition from financial resilience through to building wealth and assets? What barriers to building wealth exist for LMI households? Which forms of wealth could or should they be focused on, and what policy and/or market solutions are needed to support these goals?

This panel took a broad view of household finances, exploring the challenges inherent in different forms of work, the structural challenges in the housing market and what all this means for wealth-building among LMI households.

Speakers
  • ModeratorWill Sandbrook, Nest Insight
  • Lindsay Judge, Resolution Foundation
  • Joe Richardson, Living Wage Foundation
  • Joanna Smith-Ramani, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP)

Closing remarks | Watch session

Speakers
  • Will Sandbrook, Nest Insight
  • Claire Chamberlain, BlackRock Social Impact

Watch the day’s live-streamed sessions: