All Pensions articles – Page 157
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AnalysisLegal issues around auto-enrolment
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Employers cannot agree to provide alternative benefits on the understanding an employee opts out of a pension scheme.Qualifying earnings include various components of pay, including salary, wages, commission and bonuses.Employers must ensure they identify workers correctly under auto-enrolment.Ian Curry, associate, Wragge & CoQ: I ...
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AnalysisKnow the facts on auto-enrolment
There are key facts that all employers planning for auto-enrolment should know. Gillian McNamara, policy lead, employer compliance regime at The Pensions Regulator (TPR), says: “There is one crucial figure to know even before developing a plan to comply with the new duties, and that is the number of people ...
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Case Studies
Morrisons helps employees to save money
The programme, ‘Save your dough’, provides the retailer’s 135,000 employees with information on saving in general and for retirement. It includes in-store champions who are armed with further information on saving, two booklets about saving money and one on retirement saving, and a website.A monthly employee survey found that 45,000 ...
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Analysis
Pros and cons of absolute return funds
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS…Absolute return funds (AFRs) have grown in popularity on the back of volatile equity market performance.ARFs are relatively expensive and, despite their name, can still lose money.Employers tend to use ARFs in conjunction with a more passive fund for their default investment option.Absolute return ...
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Article
Lorica adds Aviva’s auto-enrolment product to portal
Lorica Employee Benefits is to integrate Aviva’s online auto-enrolment modelling and compliance product into its auto-enrolment portal Simplicity.The product, Auto-enrolment Manager for Employers (AME), provides employers with a way to prepare for and manage their responsibilities around auto-enrolment. This includes keeping up to date with compliance duties such as employee ...
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Article
ITM to partner PensionsFirst for data audits
ITM, a pension data specialist, is to partner PensionsFirst to offer its Pfaroe risk management platform to enhance its data risk audit service for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.The organisation will use the platform to assess the potential liability impact of data and benefit errors discovered during employers’ data risk ...
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Article
Majority of employers aware of auto-enrolment
The majority (88%) of respondents to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) are aware of their requirements to auto-enrol staff into a pension scheme.Its Labour market outlook: Focus on pension auto-enrolment, which surveyed more than 1,000 employers, found that more than half (59%) of respondents have ...
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Article
Employers to rely on existing technology for auto-enrolment
More than 50% of respondents said they expect to rely on their existing payroll and HR systems to fulfil their auto-enrolment duties, according to research by JLT Benefit Solutions.The latest JLT 250 club survey, which polled around 250 private sector employers, looked at the role of technology in the provision ...
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Article
Local government pensions need better investment governance
The future of local government pension schemes (LGPS) in London is potentially blighted by weak oversight of investment governance, according to research by the Pensions Institute.Its report, An evaluation of investment governance in London local government pension schemes, identifies fundamental flaws in the investment governance of the majority of London’s ...
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Article
Lyreco prepares for pensions auto-enrolment
Lyreco has brought forward its auto-enrolment staging date, switched pension providers, and set up administration software between its payroll and pension provider.The workplace products distributor will use Cerdian’s auto-enrolment administration software, which automatically identifies and enrols employees into the chosen pension scheme.The software aligns the exchange of payroll information from ...
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Article
Johnson Fleming expands auto-enrolment offering
Johnson Fleming has partnered with the national employment savings trust (Nest), Now: Pensions and The People’s Pension to offer a two-tier auto-enrolment option for employers.The agreement enables employers that require a two-tier option to use a single administration and communications platform, rather than running more than one platform.Simon Fletcher, client ...
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Analysis
Ferdinand Lovett: Typical legal queries from HR
Ferdinand Lovett, solicitor at Sacker and Partners, and legal expert at Employee Benefits Live 2012, tells Debi O’Donovan, editor of Employee Benefits, the common questions he and his law firm are being asked by HR and benefits managers with regards to pensions auto-enrolment.Lovett flags up the common legal areas that ...
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Article
Consultation on lifting Nest restrictions
The government has published a call for evidence on the impact of two statutory restrictions on the National employment savings trust (Nest).It is seeking views and evidence on whether the annual contribution limit and transfer restrictions on Nest are influencing employers’ choice of auto-enrolment pension scheme in a way that ...
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Article
Booker Tate completes pensions buyout
Booker Tate has completed a pension insurance buyout for its defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.The transaction, carried out in conjunction with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), covers £20 million of pension liabilities.The organisation, which provides development, management and technical services to the sugar, ethanol and bio-energy market, was advised by Barnett ...
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Article
DB pension deficits hamper investment
High levels of defined benefit (DB) pension scheme deficits are hampering organisations in investing in their businesses, according to research by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and Mercer.The Living with defined benefit pension risk report, which surveyed finance directors and other senior leaders on DB ...
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Article
BT's pension deficit increases to £3.1bn
BT Group’s final salary pension scheme deficit has increased from £1.9 billion to £3.1 billion since March 2012.The telecommunications firm published the figure in its financial results for the second quarter and half year to 30 September 2012.The higher deficit reflects the impact on liabilities of a reduction in the ...
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Article
JLT to take over Aegon’s DB pension portfolio
JLT Benefit Solutions will take over the ongoing provision of services to Aegon’s portfolio of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.The portfolios have an asset value of £710 million and contain 25,000 members.The partnership will see 100 Aegon staff transfer to JLT in early 2013.Duncan Howorth, chief executive at JLT Benefit ...
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Article
Prudential partners Nest and Now: Pensions
Prudential UK has partnered with the National employment savings trust (Nest) and Now: Pensions to offer pension auto-enrolment options to employers.The financial services provider is working with Nest and Now Pensions to provide organisations with diverse workforces the option of a dual-scheme approach to complying with auto-enrolment.David Caw, head of ...
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Article
A third of respondents are not saving
More than one-third (35%) of respondents do not contribute to any kind of savings vehicle, according to research by Now: Pensions.The research, which was carried out through an online survey of 2,033 UK adults, found that one in four (27%) respondents said they will face a shortfall in their pensions ...
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ArticleLow-paid workers have poorer pensions provision
Low-paid workers are less likely to belong to a workplace pension scheme, and those that do have lower employer contribution rates, according to research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).The TUC Pensions scorecard report, which examined the membership, contribution rates and governance of workplace pensions across the UK, found that ...