The Pension Gap – will it always be about gender?

The Pension Gap – will it always be about gender? 

There has been a lot in the press around the gender pension gap – women who have worked their entire lives on average have £100,000 less than men in their pension pot at retirement. 1.2m women in the UK approaching retirement have no private pension savings at all, according to the PPI. This imbalance has been largely driven by gender pay inequalities and time out of the workforce due to childcare commitments. This issue has been covered extensively in the press for the last couple of years and we don’t expect the attention to fade (nor should it).  However it begs the question, as society changes and in particular working patterns shift, what might be the driver of a pension imbalance for the next generation? In our next session we will discuss the current pension gap, its drivers and ramifications – but we will also explore what could be the cause of the next pension gap.  We hope to have a lively discussion with speakers on a topic that has implications for your clients, and also for yourselves. 

Speakers: 

Sarah Luheshi joined the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) in 2015 and is the Deputy Director with responsibility for the PPI's research programme, delivered through the Policy Research and Modelling Teams. Since joining she has presented and spoken at numerous events on a range of topics, including the self-employed, lessons from around the international pensions world, tax relief, complexity of consumer decision making and consumer engagement. She brings over thirty years' experience in financial services having started in the corporate world working for a FTSE 100 composite insurance company before moving into management consultancy.  She has held senior roles in strategy, marketing, and customer services.  She has a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Manchester and an MBA in International Business and Corporate Finance.  

Maddi Forrester is a managing director of MFS International (U.K.) Ltd. and head of global consultant relations for MFS Investment Management (MFS). In her role, she manages a global team that collectively looks after the relationships between MFS and the largest global consultants. She is based in London.  Maddi joined MFS in 2014 as head of UK institutional business and assumed her current role in 2018. Prior to joining the firm, she oversaw the UK institutional business for AXA Investment Managers. Before that, she spent 16 years at Threadneedle Asset Management, where she served in a number of roles, including head of global institutional business, head of UK distribution, fixed income specialist, head of insurance asset management and fixed income portfolio manager. Earlier in her career, she worked as a fund manager for J.P. Morgan and as a fixed income sales professional for UBS.  Maddi earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Oxford. She is a council member of the Pensions Policy Institute and a member of the DC Investment Forum Advisory Board. 

Time: 

Breakfast 8:00 – 8:30

Session begins : 8: 30

Finish at 10:00. 

Address: One Carter Lane, EC4V 5ER, London