So much for the summer slowdown. 

 

I wanted to take a moment and share two recent initiatives we’ve been working on and what’s next for the mallowstreet community. 

 

                                

The Climate Charter was created at the mallowstreet Winchester Summit in June, borne out of a sense among trustees that not enough is being done to combat global warming. The Charter commits individuals (rather than pension funds or trustee boards) to ask a few simple and direct questions about the impact of their investment decisions on the climate.

 

Since the end of June, we have had more than 60 signatories who sit on pension fund boards responsible for over £275bn in assets. Change is in the air, and change is coming. To learn more about the origin of the Climate Charter, you can read Dawid’s blog.  We are continuing to encourage all individual pension fund trustees to sign the Charter, and will be helping to facilitate this initiative over the course of the next several weeks. 

 

 

 

I am also excited to announce the launch of The mallowstreet Trustee Survey in association with the Pensions Management Institute (PMI), The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), and the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT). Together, we are canvassing the industry to understand the pain-points, challenges, and opportunities across the trustee landscape, and intend to do this on an annual basis.

 

The response to the survey has been incredible, and we are so excited to be working with our partners and all UK pension fund trustees on this ground breaking research. You can access the Trustee Survey by clicking here.

 

 

The Climate Charter and Trustee Survey are two examples of what we are doing to support the industry because, after all, isn’t that we signed up to do? By collaborating across the industry, we are doing our bit to help make sure that every individual has adequate resources available to them in retirement.

 

I thought it was interesting looking at the top search terms in July and was not surprised in the slightest when I saw that ‘Governance’ was the top search (and by a country mile).

 

 

 

It’s clear that mallowstreet members are looking for insights and resources to help them make better and more informed decisions that will ultimately benefit the retirement savings of about 18 million people in the UK.  I’d like to say a huge thank you to our community: you continue to inspire me.

 

And if you are one of the 70 new members who registered last month, welcome to mallowstreet!  If you registered this week, we are working as quickly as we can to process applications (we are aiming to get back to everyone within 24 hours). Please bear with us as we have a lot to process.

 

If you’ve signed the Climate Charter, thank you for being a pioneer. Please share the Climate Charter and Trustee Survey with your colleagues.  I can feel significant change is coming!