Jesal Mistry is head of DC investments at Legal & General
As part of our series looking at what firms did to win their accolades at the PP Investment Awards 2024, PP speaks talks to Legal & General head of DC investments Jesal Mistry about winning the Target Date Fund Manager of the Year accolade.
What does it mean to win this award?
We're delighted to win the prestigious Professional Pensions Target Date Fund Manager of the Year award. It's a huge testament to our team who have worked tirelessly over the past year to launch our new innovative Lifetime Advantage Funds (our new target date fund range) and continued to evolve our previous range of target date funds.
We have a deep-rooted understanding of the challenges our pension members face as they plan for, transition into, and navigate through retirement. This award helps celebrate our commitment to our clients and pension members.
What do you believe sets you apart from your peers?
We've an unwavering focus on improving outcomes for pension savers, concentrating our attention on increasing participation, improving adequacy and delivering better outcomes.
Our target date funds, and other default funds, are managed by a dedicated team. They utilise a range of quantitative and qualitative research to understand the needs of members.
This includes researching the behaviours, needs and understanding of over five million of our members in the lead up to, in and through retirement. This analysis and research feeds directly into how the default funds are designed and managed.
We're constantly evolving the strategy, with members' retirement journeys varying depending on each cohort's needs.
Mid 2024, we launched our Lifetime Advantage Funds. This provides our members with access to private market investment opportunities within their default arrangement. This is an innovative step for a default fund, opening the door to a broader range of investment opportunities for pension members.
The idea of investing in real assets like wind farms, affordable housing and infrastructure is something our members can relate to. We know this through our recent member research and surveys.
How do your investment strategies help pension schemes meet the challenges they face?
Our investment strategies are designed to navigate the myriad of challenges faced by pension schemes. Whether it's ensuring value for money; strong governance; making life easier for schemes, clients and members through technology; incorporating responsible investing; or managing the right outcomes through and to retirement.
Throughout 2024, we continued to deliver an excellent service to over five million members, offered innovative investment strategies and supported member retirement planning through market-leading digital tools.
This includes the launch of our new Private Markets Access Fund, Lifetime Advantage Funds and Islamic investment proposition. We've also enhanced our digital tools including our new mobile app, and our retirement guidance journey that supports members make informed decisions at retirement.
We are investing heavily to keep innovating, and we remain the largest commercial UK DC provider with over £176bn of assets.
How will you continue to improve your investment offering over the coming 12 months?
We'll continue to review and evolve our default fund offerings in line with client and member needs, to help seek the best possible investment opportunities.
In 2025, we're committed to further enhancing our private markets offering by introducing new areas such as timber and nature.
We'll also launch four new thematic funds that the target date fund ranges will invest into. This allows us to target specific ESG factors such as clean water, clean power, hydrogen economy and pharmaceutical breakthrough.
Further strengthening sustainability credentials, we'll see a new fund with a specific focus on climate, nature and people. In advance of the fund launch, we're already investing directly in these themes where compelling opportunities arise. This includes a recent $20m (£15.73m) investment in an Ecuador Rainforest debt-for-nature swap.
To help improve the TDF approaching retirement stages — from both an ESG and a risk versus return perspective — we'll also have a new short-dated fund with net zero credentials. Having met all our 2025 interim targets across the TDF range, we will set new net zero interim targets for 2035.
Legal & General also won the Long Income Property Manager of the Year category at the awards
The winners of the 11th annual PP Investment Awards were announced at a reception in London on 20 November. To see the full list of winners and find out more about the awards, visit: www.investmentawards.co.uk
