News – Page 90
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DC pension schemes offering wider investment choices
Defined contribution (DC) pension scheme investors are now being offered a wider choice of funds, according to research by the Pensions Regulator (TPR).Its Scheme governance survey 2013 found that:The proportion of schemes offering just one investment fund has fallen from 32% in 2009 to 18% in 2012.In the past year, ...
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Opt out rules upset Barbon's auto-enrolment plan
EXCLUSIVE: Barbon Insurance will postpone the date on which it automatically enrols staff into its pension scheme in order to comply with the Pensions Act 2008 on opting out.The employer’s staging date is 1 November 2013 and it was hoping to use its benefits window between August to September in ...
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High level of understanding around retirement options
Almost three-quarters (73%) of pre-retirees and 89% of annuity purchasers are comfortable with the level of understanding of their retirement options, according to research by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).Its research, Retirement choices: baseline to measure effectiveness of the code of conduct, included 500 pre-retirement telephone interviews with members ...
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GeoPost UK prepares for auto-enrolment
EXCLUSIVE: GeoPost UK is encouraging employees to join its group personal pension (GPP) ahead of its auto-enrolment staging date of 1 August 2013.Under the banner ‘Last Chance Saloon’, the logistics organisation invited all employees who were not members of the pension scheme to join the GPP, which matches employee contributions ...
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ArticleJLT sees 9.3% average auto-enrolment opt out
EXCLUSIVE: JLT Employee Benefits has recorded a 9.3% auto-enroloment opt-out rate among its employer clients.The employee benefits adviser used BenPal, its benefits management platform, to help 50 large employers auto-enrol their employees.The organisation assessed 287,712 candidates, enrolled 11,162 employees and saw 1,037 employees opt out of their employer’s auto-enrolment pension ...
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Ladbrokes pension awarded PQM
Ladbrokes has been awarded a Pension Quality Mark (PQM) for its stakeholder defined contribution (DC) pension scheme.The benchmark, awarded by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), is given to employers that provide good quality defined contribution (DC) pension schemes to their staff. It recognises DC schemes that have total ...
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Origen Investment Services to sell pensions admin businesses
Origen Investment Services is to sell its pensions administration businesses.Its specialist self-administered pensions service business is to be sold to consultancy Barnett Waddingham, while its self-invested personal pension (Sipp) business is to be transferred to Sipp provider and administrator Suffolk Life.Origen Investment Services made the decision to exit from the ...
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ArticleDisparities in local council pension fund fees
There are disparities in the fees that local council pension funds pay to their fund managers, according to research by the Financial Times (FT).The newspaper’s analysis of pension funds’ annual reports, which was conducted for the FT by consultancy Investor Data Services, revealed that some councils were paying three ...
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Debbie Lovewell: Transparency reveals concern over advice
Last month’s announcement that consultancy charging is to be banned for auto-enrolment schemes is good news for staff who, under this remuneration structure, could have seen high charges deducted from their pension pot.Along with the ban on commission for new schemes brought in by the retail distribution review, pension minister ...
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Concerns over consultancy charge ban
Consultancy charging, introduced under the retail distribution review, which came into effect at the end of last year, enabled employers to pay an adviser for some of its pensions management work out of the employee’s or employer’s contributions to a member’s fund.Jon Dixon, head of Chase de Vere’s auto-enrolment proposition, ...
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Auto-enrolment opt-out rates lower than expected
Before the auto-enrolment roll-out began last October, it was predicted employers could expect opt-out rates of 20% to 30%.But McDonald’s Restaurants, for example, has seen only 2.4% of its hourly-paid employees and 2.7% of its salaried staff that were auto-enrolled on 1 January 2013 opt out.The fast-food retailer has 37,000 ...
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HMRC confirms VAT payable on pensions consultancy charges
HMRC also said organisations that supply advice and assistance to employers around the implementation and ongoing administration of contract-based DC schemes must establish two matters to determine the VAT treatment: what is the nature of the service supplied and who is the recipient of that service?Employers will normally be able ...
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Peter Reilly: Does paternalism still have a place in benefits?
In the left corner were those who felt defined benefit schemes should be retained because they ensured employees could look forward to a secure financial future. In the right corner were those that favoured defined contribution schemes because of their greater transparency, individual choice and flexibility.This was, in part, a ...
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Buyer's guide to pension modelling tools
Getting staff to recognise this gap is a challenge, but employers can now call on interactive pension modelling tools to help get the message across.Tools vary greatly. Some are fairly simple, designed to provide a snapshot of one particular pensions issue, such as the Money Advice Service’s (MAS) automatic-enrolment toolkit, ...
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European Commission drops pension solvency requirements
The European Commission has dropped proposed solvency requirements from an overhauled pensions directive that will be put forward this autumn.The Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions directive, which is aimed at improving the governance and transparency of pension schemes in the European Union (EU), will no longer include the issue of ...
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High levels of pensions auto-enrolment awareness
Almost all (98%) respondents are aware of pensions auto-enrolment, compared to the 20% who said the same in 2011, according to research by the Institute of Directors (IOD).Its research, which surveyed 1,327 IOD members, found that three-fifths (62%) of respondents said they were confident that they were ready to auto-enrol ...
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Pension liabilities up more than 60% in five years
UK pension liabilities have increased by more than 60% in five years, according to research by KPMG.The professional services organisation’s 2013 Pensions accounting survey, which had 305 respondents, found that this increase, measured over the period since January 2008, is due primarily to falling yields on AA corporate bonds, which ...
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Nest launches auto-enrolment video
The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) has launched a video to help employees through the auto-enrolment process.Its Going halves video, which aims to help employees understand the importance of employer contributions, went live on Nest’s social media channels on 22 May.The video focuses on a day in the life of ...
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NSPCC completes pension buy-in
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has completed a pension insurance buy-in for its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.The buy-in, which covers £63 million of pensioner liabilities, was concluded with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC).The transaction also allows the trustees to defer meeting the cost of ...
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ArticleFTSE-350 pension deficits hit £100 billion
FTSE-350 pension deficits rose above £100 billion over April 2013, according to research by consultancy Mercer.Its Pensions risk survey, which collected data from 320 UK pension schemes, revealed that the estimated aggregate IAS19 deficit for FTSE-350 defined benefit (DB) pension schemesstood at £108bn at 30 April 2013, compared to a ...