A lot has been written about how to achieve good outcomes for members of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. A strong employer covenant, well-managed investments...
Read article “Good administration, the backbone of pensions”5 minutes

“When I was your age” is a familiar phrase most children hear regularly.
I recently caught myself saying this whilst bemoaning how Lego has evolved from my childhood. “Back in my day”, at least in my memory, we only had a handful of different Lego building blocks and no instruction book. Children were left to their creative imaginations, albeit constrained by the limited number of pieces. Today’s Lego has a seemingly infinite number of building blocks alongside instruction books requiring an engineering PhD!
Portfolio construction today shares similarities with the evolution in Lego’s building blocks. Just as Formula One Lego didn’t exist in the 1980s, super-core infrastructure and senior direct lending were not part of the institutional investors toolkit. And whilst today’s allocators have an abundance of different building blocks, their instruction manuals haven’t kept pace.
Read more in our new ‘Expert Investor’ paper below:

For more information on Brightwell’s One Portfolio Approach, please get in touch with Emily at e.benson@brightwellpensions.com

Head of Communications and External Relations
In this edition we celebrate our reaccreditation to PASA for Excellence in Pension Administration, Chris Threadgold explores outsourcing scheme services, and we release a special live edition of Pensions Unpacked, with Ian Mills, Head of DB Endgame Strategy at Barnett Waddingham, Morten Nilsson, CEO at Brightwell, and financial journalist Georgie Frost.
Find out more about “Bright Insight – Q3 2025”08/10/2025
In this special live edition of Pensions Unpacked, Ian Mills, Head of DB Endgame Strategy at Barnett Waddingham, and Morten Nilsson, CEO at Brightwell, talk to Georgie Frost about the future of the UK’s defined benefit pensions sector.
Find out more about “Pensions Unpacked Live Episode 3: UK DB landscape – where are we now & where are we going?”08/10/2025
For information on how we use your personal data read our terms & conditions and privacy statement.