PAST WINNERS 2022

We are thrilled to announce the 2022 winners & runners up of the P&I Innovation Awards:

DOWNLOAD here the jury reports of all nominations.
Read more here: https://www.pionline.com/worldpensionsummit/5-initiatives-honored-excellence-retirement-innovation-wps

INVESTMENTS INNOVATION AWARD

Co-Winner: VBV-Pensionskasse | Austria
Climate Impact – Aligning with SDG 13

Austria’s VBV-Pensionskasse has established a dedicated investment strategy to support its aim to invest in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 13, ‘Climate Action’.
The pension fund has implemented a long-term investment strategy focused on climate change across its entire €3bn ($3bn) public equity portfolio and its €1bn ($1bn) corporate bond portfolio. The approach taken incorporates the use of Paris Agreement-aligned indexes, carbon emission reduction strategies, fossil fuel exclusion criteria, and tilting towards clean energy technology companies and infrastructure investments. The strategy has helped VBV-Pensionskasse to reduce the carbon footprint of its investment portfolio by more than 7% in 2022 compared to 2021. 

The pension fund has communicated relevant environmental, social and governance indicators to its members as part of regular reporting and has sought and obtained independent certification of its environmental performance.

Co-Winner: TPT Retirement Solutions| United Kingdom
Private equity and sustainable opportunities (‘impact’) allocations

TPT Retirement Solutions has experienced a rapid growth in its defined contribution (DC) offering following the introduction of automatic enrolment in the UK. It has sought to innovate to ensure younger members, who are typically more reliant on DC savings than older people, have access to the best possible investment outcomes.

With returns from conventional assets expected to be much lower in the future, TPT has begun exploring allocations to alternative asset classes such as private equity. At the same time, the organization has placed environmental, social and governance criteria high on its list of priorities. This has led the provider to explore adding an impact investment strategy within its target-date funds.

TPT’s overlay for its target-date funds applies environmental, social and governance factors across the portfolios to screen out controversial companies and sectors such as thermal coal and tobacco. The organization has also set a carbon emission reduction target of 50% by 2030 and net zero by 2050. The sustainable opportunities allocation is already meaningfully outperforming its benchmark as well as broader equities.

RUNNER UP: Nest | United Kingdom - Private equity investment

COMMUNICATION INNOVATION AWARD 

Winner: TPT Retirement Solutions | United Kingdom
Initiative: Retirement Living Standards interactive video quiz

TPT Retirement Solutions built an interactive video quiz for members based on the Retirement Living Standards – a set of three hypothetical models based on retirement saving levels supported by the UK’s pension fund trade body, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

Based on behavioural psychology research, TPT Retirement Solutions established the interactive quiz to engage members on an emotional level to help them understand how potential retirement outcomes apply to their specific circumstances, especially if retirement is many years away. The quiz is incorporated into its engagement and education journey for pension fund members.

Quiz content is adapted based on the individual’s age to ensure the questions and answers are relatable. Their answers lead to a prompt to log in to their TPT account where they can review their savings and take action, if they wish, such as increasing pension contributions. TPT’s personalized video statements also reference the Retirement Living Standards to ensure alignment and cohesion across communications. The company is planning several pieces of research to gauge the impact of the new communication method. The quiz has already been visited almost 1,000 times – just two weeks after going live, and ultimately aimed to improve member understanding.

RUNNER UP: Protección SA | Colombia - Your Future Starts Today

PLAN DESIGN INNOVATION AWARD

Winner: Emergo Wealth | Cyprus
LifeGoals Multi-Employer Provident Fund

Emergo Wealth’s LifeGoals Multi-Employer Provident Fund has a strategy based around “goals-based investing”. This allows customers to save for specific life events as well as retirement. To support this aim, it has six investment options, including bank savings and fixed income savings accounts alongside four investing strategies. It also offers four corresponding investment strategies with an environmental, social and governance (ESG) tilt. Savers can switch portfolios on a weekly basis without any cost.

The provider also implements a “stay invested” philosophy, allowing savers to remain invested when taking an income. Benefits can be paid into a LifeGoals investment account to avoid savers being forced to sell. In addition, savers can add savings from elsewhere using the LifeGoals online platform. The LifeGoals platform also provides financial planning tools and a life insurance product provided by MetLife, as well as optional critical illness cover. Lifegoals has grown from 46 to 300 employers as of mid-2022. The Fund shows steady and continued growth in terms of members and AUM and is ready to accommodate the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) and service individual members exclusively online/remotely. 

RUNNER UP: Blue Pier™ | Canada - Pension Plan as a Service

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AWARD

Winner: Common Wealth | Canada
Common Wealth Plan

Common Wealth is a technology-enabled retirement savings and planning platform designed to give employers access to an easy-to-use, portable, and cost-effective system for their staff to save for a pension. It has been developed after more than five years of research and development in collaboration with other organizations, including the World Bank and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

The resulting Common Wealth platform incorporates research and tools that the company claims can generate up to 2-3 times the retirement income for every dollar of savings compared to similar products. It provides support and guidance to savers on contributions and retirement income as well as how much individuals can expect from the state pension. The plan’s dedicated app allows for simple and efficient onboarding of staff and employers. The platform Employees are able to create their automated retirement plan in 10-15 minutes and can be integrated with a range of payroll systems.

Investments are run by BlackRock using its LifePath target-date funds, and retirees can access a deferred annuity underwritten by Brookfield Annuity to allow the purchase of guaranteed income in small monthly amounts.

RUNNER UP: County Pension Fund | Kenya - Rukisha Solution 

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