Skip to content

News

Learning from Lego – how we build client portfolios

“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 Andy at a.drake@brightwellpensions.com

Published:

18 / 06 / 2025

Share Article:

Media enquiries contacts

Amy Mankelow​

Head of Communications and External Relations


Explore other articles

Brightwell comments on the final phase of the Pension Schemes Bill

As the Pension Schemes Bill reaches its final phase, Morten Nilsson, CEO, Brightwell said: “The Pension Schemes Bill will introduce a number of important reforms which will shape the future direction of travel for pensions for decades to come.

Find out more about “Brightwell comments on the final phase of the Pension Schemes Bill”

21/04/2026

Endgame and Surplus report 2026: Run-on now dominant endgame for large DB schemes

Run-on has decisively overtaken buy-out as the dominant endgame for the UK’s largest defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. Seven in ten (70%) now target run-on, nearly double the 38% recorded just twelve months ago, while buy-out has collapsed to just 4%, according to new research published today by Brightwell in partnership with mallowstreet.

Find out more about “Endgame and Surplus report 2026: Run-on now dominant endgame for large DB schemes”

30/03/2026

Subscribe

    Email subscription form