All Pensions articles – Page 135
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Article
Liability-driven pension investment increases to £446bn
Liability-driven pension investment (LDI) increased by 11% in 2012, according to research by KPMG Investment Advisory.The KPMG 2013 LDI survey, which questioned 30 institutional managers, found that LDI now covers £446 billion of pension liabilities, with 686 UK pension scheme mandates now employing LDI.However, the provision of LDI remains dominated ...
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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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Article
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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Opinion
Pádraig Floyd: A pension warning for employers on 'pot follows member'
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has now published details of rules to govern what must happen to an employee’s pension when they leave an employer. This regulation, generally referred to as ‘pot follows member’, makes provision for any pension pots of less than £10,000 to transfer with the ...
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AnalysisKey issues for employers post auto-enrolment staging
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Post auto-enrolment staging date, employers must keep on top of a number of tasks to remain compliant.Having robust record-keeping and data processes in place is key.Employers must ensure they send relevant communications to their workforce at the required times.Preparing for auto-enrolment may feel like ...
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Article
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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Opinion
Gary Moore: Consultancy charge ban will cause problems
When the Financial Services Authority (FSA) launched its retail distribution review in 2006, it promised to make sure charges for advice were transparent and fair. As a result, the FSA banned charging by commission but allowed pension plans to take consultancy charges from individuals’ pension pots as long as they ...
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Article
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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AnalysisHow transparent are benefits charging structures?
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Historically, commission-based and consultancy charges in the pensions market led to a lack of transparency in what employers were paying for.Now that both have been banned, with the exception of legacy commission schemes, the pensions market has moved towards a more transparent fees-based model.Adviser ...
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Article
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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AnalysisThe pros and cons of using lifestyle investment strategies for pension funds
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Lifestyle strategies progressively switch pension scheme members into bonds as they approach retirement.Although lifestyle options have done well over the past decade, this has been a consequence of rising bond markets.Providers have been devising diversified funds that are actively and tactically managed so members ...
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Article
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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Article
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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Article
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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Article
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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Opinion
Mark Baker: Employers must respect staff attitudes to pension fund risk
Among most employers, it is conventional to use lifestyle or target date funds. For younger workers, the money is held in equities, then over time it is switched into bonds and cash. Often the member can nominate a planned retirement date and the lifestyling switches are geared towards that date; ...
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Article
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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Article
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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Article
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 ...