News – Page 95
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New adviser for local government pension
The Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC) has appointed an actuarial adviser to its local government pension scheme for Northern Ireland.Aon Hewitt will be working closely with the committee and its officers to help manage the £4 billion fund, which has 90,000 members.David Murphy, chief executive and secretary ...
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Auto-enrolment legislation deemed unnecessarily complex
Auto-enrolment legislation is considered unnecessarily complex or difficult by HR, payroll and finance professionals, according to research by Ceridian.Its survey of more than 600 HR, payroll and finance professionals found that 76% considered auto-enrolment legislation to be either unnecessarily complex or difficult.Of these, 22% of respondents considered auto-enrolment legislation to ...
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HMRC wins legal battle against NAPF
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has won a legal battle against the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and Wheels Common Investment Fund (WCIF) over the payment of VAT by defined benefit (DB) schemes.The Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) ruled that the DB schemes are not special investment ...
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Bombardier Transportation appoints Mercer
Rail engineer Bombardier Transportation has appointed Mercer to provide pension scheme actuarial services to the trustees of its three defined benefit (DB) plans across seven schemes, with combined assets of around £1 billion in the UK.The organisation has more than 26,000 employees across Europe and has yearly revenues of $6.275 ...
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SMEs unprepared for pensions auto-enrolment
Fewer than half (42%) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed have taken concrete steps towards auto-enrolment implementation, according to research by Jelf Employee Benefits.The Jelf Employee Benefits Auto-enrolment tracker, which surveyed 124 SMEs, found that just 29% of respondents are aware of their staging date.This compares to 38% in ...
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Balfour Beatty to close DB pension scheme
Balfour Beatty is consulting with staff about closing its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to future accrual.Its proposals would affect around 2,500 active pension scheme members, which represents about 10% of its workforce.The consultation will end in May and the scheme closure will take effect from September.In its Full year ...
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Wolseley to close DB pension scheme
Wolseley is consulting with staff about proposals to close its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to future accrual on 31 December 2013.Under the terms of the plumbing organisation’s proposals, the pension benefits staff have already built up within the scheme will be protected and there will be no changes to ...
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Serco boosts take-up ahead of auto-enrolment
EXCLUSIVE: Serco Group has increased take-up of its stakeholder pension scheme by communicating auto-enrolment four months ahead of its staging date.The international services organisation sent letters to its 30,000 UK employees in January 2013. It has since seen a 2% rise in take-up of the scheme, in advance of the ...
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ICR enters into pension insurance buy-in
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) Pension Scheme has entered into a pension insurance buy-in to cover £30 million of liabilities for its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.The buy-in was concluded by Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). The trustees were advised by Punter Southall and Towers Watson.John Roberts, chair of the ...
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Towers Watson launches DB pension app
Towers Watson has launched an application (app) for iPads to help employers and trustees understand the factors that affect the size of their defined benefit (DB) pension deficits.The Funding Illustrator App allows employers and trustees to engage with the possible outcomes from actuarial valuations much earlier in the valuation process, ...
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Buck Consultants launches auto-enrolment system
Buck Consultants has launched an auto-enrolment system, which is designed for small and medium-sized employers.Enrolment Pro can be integrated with employers existing systems or used as a standalone platform. It includes modules that guide employers through each stage of auto-enrolment, from auditing existing systems through to assessing ongoing governance.The modules ...
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Employers change contribution structure for auto-enrolment
EB Connect 2013: Employers need to consider their pension contribution structure when complying with auto-enrolment to ensure that it is future-proof.During a panel session at Employee Benefits Connect on 1 March, pensions and benefits profiessionals from Heineken, British Airways (BA) and Marriott Hotels Europe discussed the lessons they have learned ...
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Kingfisher lowers pension deficit by £11m
Kingfisher has lowered its net pension deficit by £11 million since closing its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to future accrual from 30 June 2012.The retailer, which is the parent company of six organisations, including B&Q and Screwfix, showed in its 2012 Preliminary results that the pension gain includes £27 ...
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New trade union share owners group to address pay and pensions
Trade union groups the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), Unison and Unite have teamed up to launch a group that aims to put union values at the heart of corporate governance on issues such as excessive directors’ pay.Trade Union Share Owners will work with shareholder advisory group Pensions and Investment Research ...
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AllianceBernstein rolls out new ethical target date funds
AllianceBernstein has rolled out a new range of ethical target date funds to the UK defined contribution (DC) market.The range will be managed using underlying FTSE4Good indices and UK gilts.The Pensions Trust is the first adopter of the funds. It will offer the range to all its DC employer schemes ...
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L&G changes default fund for auto-enrolment
EXCLUSIVE: Legal and General has used auto-enrolment compliance as an opportunity to review and change its stakeholder pension scheme’s default investment fund and reduce its annual management charge (AMC).The scheme’s default fund is currently the L&G UK Equity Index Fund, but this will be changed to the L&G Multi Asset ...
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Mercer launches new DC pension and workplace savings division
Mercer has created a new defined contribution (DC) pension and workplace savings division.The consultancy has also appointed Brian Henderson (pictured) as UK leader for the division. Henderson has been a partner at Mercer since 2008, most recently as DC leader for investments in the UK. He has also been a ...
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DOD’s blog: pension investments might get stuck
Many years ago a good friend, who at the time worked as a financial adviser, gave me a piece of advice: “Always pay fees for advice, never opt for commission – fees are ultimately a fraction of the cost of commission.”Needless to say, he is no longer a financial adviser. ...
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Governance vacuum for contract-based schemes
There is a general lack of strong governance for default funds in contract-based pension schemes.Speaking at the annual National Association of Pension Funds Investment Conference 2013, Brian Henderson, a partner in Mercer’s investment division, said: “There is a total vacuum of governance for contract-based schemes.“Providers have commercial reasons to make ...
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Do not try to engage staff in pension investments
It is a bad idea to try to engage staff in their pension pots, said experts at the National Association of Pension Funds Investment Conference 2013, held in Edinburgh.Employers and pensions professionals running defined contribution (DC) contract-based pensions schemes, such as group personal pensions (GPPs) and stakeholder pensions, should reconsider ...