News – Page 114
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Buyer's guide to Group personal pensions
Group personal pension schemes have had a difficult couple of years, and employers and providers are now gearing up to meet the challenges of legislative changes, says Nicola SullivanThe group personal pension (GPP) market has been boosted by employers continuing to migrate from final salary pension schemes to defined contribution ...
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Social Housing Pension Scheme to launch defined contribution arrangement
A defined contribution (DC) scheme will be introduced to all members of the Social Housing Pension Scheme on 1 October 2010.Administered by The Pensions Trust, the scheme serves more than 60,000 members and 700 different housing groups within the National Federation of Housing Associations and Housing Corporation.To date, 208 employers ...
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Wolfson Microelectronics adds sharesave and group personal pension salary sacrifice
Wolfson Microelectronics is launching a sharesave (save-as-you-earn) scheme and introducing a salary sacrifice arrangement for contributions to its group personal pension (GPP) for its 350 UK employees.Through sharesave, staff will be able to invest £5 to £250 a month for three years. They will then be able to take their ...
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Expedia replaces group personal pension scheme with group Sipp
Expedia is to close its group personal pension (GPP) scheme and introduce a group self-invested personal pension (Sipp), with staff able to make contributions via salary sacrifice.The change, which happens this month, will affect 900 staff in the UK, including those in two of Expedia's other businesses, TripAdvisor and Egencia.The ...
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FSA confirms commission ban on group personal pensions
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has confirmed commission on all new group personal pensions (GPP) will be banned under the Retail Distribution Review from 2013.The regulator's policy document Delivering the retail distribution review - Corporate pensions: feedback to CP09/31 and final rules has stated commission will be allowed to continue ...
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Towry winds up legacy defined contribution (DC) plan
Financial advisory group Towry is winding up the trust-based defined contribution (DC) pension plan of Edward Jones, which it acquired last November.It will offer the firm’s 250 staff the option of joining Towry’s group personal pension (GPP) plan, run by Zurich, or group self-invested personal pension (Sipp).Towry has also increased ...
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Mercer launches defined contribution pensions governance tool
Mercer has launched a new tool to help trustees and governance committees improve the performance of their defined contribution (DC) pension schemes.The tool will help reduce the running costs and ensure schemes meet the needs of members, while also preparing them for new guidance expected from The Pensions Regulator.The Mercer ...
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Computershare moves acquired EES employees into group personal pension scheme
Computershare Investor Services has harmonised its pensions provision after acquiring HBOS Employee Equity Solutions (EES).The firm has integrated staff from the employee share plan administrator's legacy defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) schemes into its group personal pension (GPP) plan. Of EES's 397 staff, 371 have chosen to join their ...
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Framestore moves group personal pension into flexible benefits
Visual effects specialist Framestore has boosted take-up of its group personal pension (GPP) after moving it into its flexible benefits scheme as a salary sacrifice arrangement.Annabel Jones, human resources manager at the company, which has worked on films such as Avatar, said the GPP, provided by Scottish Widows, was the ...
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PensionDCisions research: most DC plans to review default option
More than half (54%) of defined contribution (DC) plans intend to review or change their default strategy in the near term. This figure is up from 20% in 2009.The findings are part of the 2010 PensionDCisions UK Sponsor Default Survey, which polled 62 large UK plans, representing 630,000 DC members ...
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Babcock International to consolidate defined contribution (DC) schemes
Support services company Babcock International Group is to consolidate its existing unbundled defined contribution (DC) schemes and contract-based plans for the group in the UKThe new pensions arrangement will provide a single defined contribution (DC) pension scheme for employees without access to its existing defined benefit (DB) schemes.All new staff, ...
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Corona Energy relaunches group personal pension
Corona Energy, a leading commercial energy supplier of natural gas to British-based businesses, has re-launched its group personal pension plan (GPP).Corona Energy had an existing GPP in place but it was some time since a systematic review to assess the scheme had taken place.It has appointed benefits consultancy Cartlidge Morland ...
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AllianceBernstein launches default investment strategy
Global investment firm AllianceBernstein has launched a bespoke range of funds for defined contribution (DC) schemes.The funds combine features from the traditional approaches of lifestyling and balanced (diversified growth) strategies.The AllianceBernstein Customized Retirement Strategies is aimed at DC pension members who do not have the time or inclination to make ...
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FSA to eradicate commission on GPPs, stakeholder pensions and Sipps
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has proposed that providers of group personal pensions (GPP),stakeholder pensions and self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) should not be able to pay commission to firms that advise employers in setting up pensions schemes.This proposal, outlined in the FSA’s consultation paper, Delivering the retail distribution review, would ...
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BT to raise default contribution rates for staff pensions
BT will increase the matching contribution rates for its contract-based defined contribution next April.From April 2010 the default employer contribution rate will rise to 8%, from the current 5%, with a matchingemployee contribution rate of 7%. Employees wishing to contribute a little more can also increase their matchingcontribution rates to ...
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Buyer's guide to group personal pensions (October 2009)
Sales of group personal pension schemes are thriving as employers look to shed the burden of trust-based plans and start planning for the 2012 pension reforms, says Ceri JonesThe group personal pension (GPP) market is experiencing a second wave of growth as some employers switch from trustbased pensions to contract-based ...
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Whitbread perks up defined contribution plan ahead of 2012
Whitbread, the leisure group which owns Costa Coffee and Premier Inns, will extend eligibility for its trust-based defined contribution (DC) pension scheme to an extra 14,000 staff and increase employer contribution rates to between 4.5% and 6% of salary.This announcement, which is partly motivated by the changes to pensions legislation ...
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Benefits Surgery: Default funds for defined contribution pensions
As an employer, what legal obligations do we have if the default fund of our defined contribution (DC) pension turns out to be a poor investment?In strict legal terms, employers do not have any particular legal obligation to select or monitor a default fund. But that may be a moot ...
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The move to a defined contribution pension plan can be costly
One certainty, though, is that predicting how costs will flex and move is extremely difficult. Aon Consulting principal in benefit solutions, Helen Dowsey, comments: “It is so scheme-specific; every single DB scheme is different. The costs of closing a DB scheme will depend on the funding, the size of membership ...
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Market trends: Group Personal Pension Plans (GPPs)
Group personal pensions have faced various challenges over the years, and impending personal accounts could be the latest threat, says Sarah ColesJust as the demise in popularity of pop idol Madonna has long been predicted, the same fate has been mooted for group personal pension plans (GPPs). Many thought newcomers ...