UK - The Westminster Business School's Pension Investment Academy today with backing from Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

"The programme of free monthly evening seminars is designed to help both pension fund trustees and postgraduate finance students sharpen up on pension fundamentals," the institutions states.

The purposes of the Academy are twofold: firstly, to create an educational forum for pension fund trustees that is both objective and balanced. In recognition of the increasing burden on trustees, the Academy offers a longsighted, broad perspective on pension issues with the aim of furnishing participants with greater confidence to ask robust questions of their advisers.

Industry experts including academics, leading investment consultants, asset managers, journalists and chairmen of trustees will speak on topics including a history of pensions and investment, liability management, good trusteeship and behavioural finance.

Dr Orla Gough, the school's Head of Finance and Business Law, said: "The Westminster Business School is delighted to launch The Pension Investment Academy. This programme recognises the dominant role played by pensions in today's financial and business environment, putting pensions firmly on the academic agenda. From our perspective, this is a long-term initiative that we hope to build on."   

Elsewhere, the Financial Times reported that Goldman Sachs has applied to the Financial Services Authority to set up a life assurance subsidiary to enter the pensions buyout market. The FSA and Goldman declined to comment.

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