Thought leadership
Members use their expertise to influence how we solve society’s defining challenges
Our members contributed to a broad set of policy developments that reinforced the profession’s role in building a resilient future and working in the public interest.
Our pension gaps work deepened with ethnographic research and strong stakeholder engagement
The IFoA’s Pensions Gap Working Party built on its 2024 work which highlighted how life’s decisions can reduce retirement income. In 2025 it went deeper, working with market research specialist Ipsos to illuminate the human stories behind the numbers.
‘A pension system fit for the 21st century’ used ethnographic research and filmed interviews to understand how pension gaps shape people’s lives. The report was covered in the trade press by both Money Marketing and Professional Pensions.
Among our external briefings to parliamentarians this year were three about the Pension Schemes Bill. The Pensions Board and policy team met with Peter Bedford MP, Sarah Edwards MP and Lord Davies to talk them through our position on key parts of the bill. One of our briefings informed reporting in the Financial Times, and we were quoted seven times in parliament on the bill, including by Mark Garnier MP, Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and by peers including Lord Davies, Lord Sharkey, Baroness Altmann, Baroness Hayman and Baroness Kramer.
Pensions also featured in our ‘think’ series. Issue 16 about the ‘Citizens Advance’ explored a bold idea: that early access to future state pension income could help people with housing and financial stability earlier in life.
In January, we responded to the UK Treasury Committee’s Financial Inclusion Strategy inquiry. Our response included a call for a focus on collaboration to ensure the most vulnerable in society have sufficient financial support. The strategy explicitly mentioned the IFoA’s home contents insurance pilot developed with Fair4All Finance.
Torsten Bell MP, Minister for Pensions, on the IFoA's pension gaps report
This report makes an important contribution to debates about how we reform the pensions system to ensure more people can look forward to a secure retirement. We have revived the Pensions Commission to put Britain back on track for a stronger and fairer pensions system.
©House of Commons/Roger Harris
Baroness Altmann, Member of the House of Lords
Having been closely involved in the Pension Schemes Bill legislation and worked on amendments that sought to increase the attention paid by trustees to the important reports prepared by their actuarial advisers, it has been a pleasure working with the IFoA team. I have appreciated the briefings they provided. I recognise the value of the work done by the IFoA – and commend their research and thought leadership on issues relating to both pensions and also to improving health outcomes by use of technology, which is an important issue for the quality of life of UK citizens.
© House of Lords
High-profile panels explored the tension between pensions adequacy and growth
Our policy engagement on pensions continued at the UK party conferences. We partnered with the Social Market Foundation to host high-profile panels at both Labour and Conservative party conferences in October. Both tabled the question: ‘Pensions adequacy and growth: can you do both?’
At Labour's conference in Liverpool, Alexandra Miles FIA, Chair of the Pensions Gap Working Party, provided the actuarial lens. She was joined by Pensions Minister Torsten Bell MP, Joanna Elson CBE at Independent Age, and Victoria Jonson of the People’s Partnership, with SMF’s Director Theo Bertram chairing.
At the Conservative conference in Manchester, Glyn Bradley FIA C.Act, Chair of the IFoA’s Pension Board, was the IFoA representative. He spoke alongside Stephen Edwards from Which?, Joe Dabrowski, Deputy Director of Policy at Pensions UK, and Morgan Vine, Director of Policy, Grants and Influencing at Independent Age.
We attended two other party conferences to observe discussions and developments on various issues, and we are now using our insights to engage with variety of external stakeholders.
Glyn Bradley FIA C.Act, IFoA Pensions Board Chair
Actuaries are at the heart of the pensions system, with deep technical and modelling expertise. We work with policymakers, regulators and the wider pensions industry in finding solutions to both today’s problems and those of the distant future. This year we have been busy responding to consultations, speaking at party conferences, briefing parliamentarians, and meeting the think tanks, making sure the actuarial voice is heard before the decisions are made.
Labour Party Conference Panel
Working party brought its expertise and evidence-based insights to inform UK social care commission
The Casey Commission, an independent commission into adult social care led by Baroness Louise Casey, got underway in 2025. It has been a long-awaited opportunity for the actuarial profession to contribute its skills and expertise to the policy debate on social care.
The IFoA’s Social Care Working Party examined public attitudes towards saving for social care in its report ‘Who cares? Exploring attitudes to social care in the UK’. The paper, informed by a commissioned YouGov survey, includes the alarming finding that 77% of UK adults have done nothing to prepare for long-term care.
The same research group was invited to give expert advice and modelling support to Lord Kamall as part of a cross-party submission to the Casey Commission, and helped to shape our report with the International Longevity Centre, setting out bold options to reform social care.
One recommendation in ‘Towards a new vision for social care’ is to shift responsibility for social care funding to central government.
All this helped the working party to win the Member Impact category at the first IFoA Volunteer Recognition Awards, while chair Tom Kenny FIA C.Act, was interviewed for The Actuary podcast.
Health and care issues were the focus of two ‘think’ pieces. Edition 14 explores the impact of weight loss drugs. David Beddows FIA C.Act, Chair of the IFoA Health and Care Research Sub-committee, authored issue 15. It looks at how the UK Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England can support a culture of investing for prevention and population health.
Tom Kenny FIA C.Act, Chair of the Social Care Working Party, talks about the challenges in the social care system | Listen to the podcast
Lord Kamall, Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
When I started working with another peer on a cross-party solution to funding later life social care, we realised that we needed expertise in estimating the take-up and cost of insurance products. I am very grateful to the IFoA Social Care Working Party for their analysis of different scenarios and estimates, allowing us to cost our proposal and to consider its viability.
Social Care Working Party members and IFoA staff with Lord Kamall in the UK parliament
A positive year for the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI)
The year saw sustained and wide-ranging activity from the CMI, with the subscriber survey indicating that subscribers value the quality and timeliness of the outputs.
Over the year, CMI research included 12 working papers with analysis from all investigations – Annuities, Assurances, Income Protection, Mortality Projections and SAPS. These have been accompanied by nine blogs, three subscriber webinars and six newsletters. The CMI and IFoA also teamed up to produce two webinars on graduating base mortality.
The CMI continues to publish frequent mortality analysis for England and Wales through its monthly and quarterly mortality monitors. This has provided an overview for the actuarial profession, and beyond, on post-pandemic mortality experience. These updates have been widely picked up in the media.
The CMI Model review concluded with the release of CMI_2024 in June 2025. This was the culmination of many months of research and discussion and followed a consultation process. The Mortality Projections Committee won the Team Excellence award at the inaugural IFoA Volunteer Recognition Awards, recognised for its work on the model review.
The CMI explored whether it can expand the range of demographic information and analyses available to subscribers and sought feedback to understand what would be of most value. It is now exploring whether it can support regular provision of a driver-based cause of death dataset and working with the IFoA Social Care Working Party to investigate the feasibility of obtaining a dataset for analysing social care experience.
The CMI has over 50 volunteers providing valuable contributions, all of whom are vital to its continued success.
Stuart McDonald FIA C.Act, CMI Executive Committee Chair and LCP Partner
I am proud of the value that the CMI brings to its subscriber base and beyond, providing authoritative and timely analysis that supports the actuarial profession, informs wider debate, and improves understanding of changing mortality and morbidity trends.
Susan Hanlon FFA C.Act, CMI subscriber and Principal, Mercer
Access to the CMI’s outputs and research is incredibly valuable to us for our work with both pension scheme and insurance/reinsurance clients. As well as having access to world-class independent research to supplement our own mortality modelling, the standard tables and projections provide a useful common language for discussion of mortality and the associated risks with our clients, other advisers and more widely across the industry.
Growing our thought leadership series
think
The ‘think’ initiative is a platform for members and external stakeholders to share perspectives that may differ from the IFoA’s own view. It is a way to challenge the status quo within the profession and shine a light on complex or under-examined issues.
This year we released seven more issues. One explored a blueprint for safely integrating AI agents into insurance operations, while another delved into behavioural interventions for building climate resilience.
Read issues 10-16 below
think issue 10
Student Loans
think issue 11
Behaviour and Climate
think issue 12
Stamp Duty
think issue 13
AI Agents
think issue 14
Weight Management
think issue 15
Prevention and Population Health
think issue 16
Citizens Advance
Building the case for action on climate
One year on from our influential ‘Planetary Solvency’ climate paper, we published the follow up: ‘Parasol Lost: Recovery plan needed’. It warns that global temperatures are accelerating faster than predicted, driven by a loss of aerosol cooling.
The stark report, the fourth in a series from the IFoA and University of Exeter, is a call from actuaries and scientists for emergency action. We argue that a Planetary Solvency plan is urgently needed to avoid catastrophic human, societal and economic impacts. Both edie – an influential platform in the UK’s sustainability sector – and Pensions Expert covered the report.
One of the report’s authors is Professor Tim Lenton HonFIA, founding Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter. In July we were delighted to elect him as an Honorary Fellow. Professor Lenton has worked extensively with us on our climate reports.
IFoA research papers
More climate thought leadership papers in conjunction with the University of Exeter.
Emperor’s New Climate Scenarios
Climate Scorpion
Planetary Solvency
Parasol Lost
Professor Michael Obersteiner, Director of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
The Parasol Lost report is exactly what the world needs, a rigorous actuarial review of critical climate change assumptions that are informing our response to this challenge. It shines a clear light on the inadequacy of current carbon budgets and the large uncertainties that we are effectively ignoring.
From EVs to infrastructure, our practice boards continued to contribute on important issues
The IFoA’s Protection Taskforce coordinated the profession’s response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) market study on pure protection products. Following a series of meetings with FCA officials, IFoA member analysis was referenced in the interim report and helped shape the FCA’s next steps on its work in this market.
The Electric Vehicles Working Party led our response to the House of Commons Transport Committee inquiry into ‘Supercharging the Electric Vehicle (EV) transition’. In the response we made the case that targeted intervention is needed to accelerate the translation of improving EV risk experience into lower insurance premiums.
In April 2025, we hosted an infrastructure roundtable at Staple Inn. The IFoA’s Infrastructure Working Party, in the finance and investment practice area, gathered alongside other sector leaders with extensive experience of infrastructure projects involving both the public and private sectors. They included Treasury officials and investors from pension funds.
