Last month, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice announced that a Reform government could transform the UK Local Government Pension Scheme into a £500bn sovereign wealth fund, while scrapping defined benefit pensions for incoming civil servants. But could the LGPS actually be converted into a sovereign wealth fund?

The British pension system is trying to reconfigure itself with something of a Canadian flavour, that means bigger funds, investing in private assets through in-house teams. We speak to Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer at the British Business Bank, about how pension funds in England and Wales can get there.

Indirect crypto exposure among Dutch companies, institutions and households has grown rapidly, with Dutch pension funds holding the largest shares. But with wariness around the asset persisting, those who have committed remain elusive.

Ryan Boothroyd, Border to Coast Pension Partnership’s head of external management, explains to AOX how the changing macroeconomic environment since 2022 means he will start taking a different approach to selecting the global equity managers he works with.

Calpers chief investment officer Stephen Gilmore explains to AOX what stage the $563bn pension fund is at in its transition to the total portfolio approach and how it is handling some of the potential risks

Given the rising tide of economic nationalism, is there anything we can learn from the extent to which pensions around the globe invest in their national economies? Perhaps there is.

Two of Britain’s local government pension scheme funds explain why they felt ‘soft government pressure’ to join a pool which was not their first choice

The US Senate is considering an anti-ESG retirement bill which will force funds to only consider financially material questions when they pick their investments. Will this change what pension fund portfolios actually look like?

Defined contribution schemes in the UK are becoming more confident in seeking returns away from public markets, according to LCP

PwC expects 2026 to be a “jumbo” year for pension buyouts in the UK asset owner space, with more than £50bn of transaction volumes forecast. But how is that changing the way insurers, on the other side of the transaction, invest?

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney won last year’s election in part due to economic nationalism in response to US tariffs. But is this the right approach to the country’s widely-respected pension funds?

Aberdeen City Council is taking Federated Hermes to court over an investment in Swedish wind farms which, it alleges, lost $117mn or 83 per cent of the total investment

The $25bn AkademikerPension fund is selling off its US Treasury holdings, a decision it insists is rooted in the American government’s “poor” finances rather than geopolitics

UK local government pension schemes are being ‘essentially forced’ to pool their management ahead of the April 1 deadline - but not everyone is happy about it

As the UK government pushes for pension scheme consolidation, dreaming of economies of scale and a dearth of domestic private investment, we look at the Netherlands and Australia for clues as to what that might look like

Outgoing New York City comptroller Brad Lander has told the city’s pension systems to fire BlackRock over its climate track record. This has not gone down well with the world’s largest asset manager

Steve Hodder, a partner at LCP, said the proportion of the gilt market owned by defined benefit schemes was “quite frightening” - particularly given the number of DB schemes closing and the large amount of buy-out activity

People’s Pension, which runs £38bn in assets, is aiming to align its investments with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warning below 1.5C but some US asset managers are pivoting away from ESG investments

Asset managers will need to demonstrate a commitment to good governance as defined contribution master trusts consolidate in time for 2030, according to Jonathan Lipkin, director for policy, strategy and innovation at the Investment Association.

The Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee is weighing return potential against environmental concerns following its recent switch to an emerging market equity tracker fund.