As the agenda for pension schemes lengthens, consultant services continue to be in demand reports Allison Plager, financial journalist
Was there ever a time when pensions were not in the news? Not everyone has had to get to grips with the extensive reforms to pensions made by the Finance Act 2004 which came into effect on 6 April 2006, but since then there has been the great higher rate tax relief debacle, auto-enrolment and the...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Pension schemes
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has appointed four new members: Councillor Sir Merrick Cockell, Mike O’Donnell, Anthony Dalwood and Councillor Stephen Alambritis, to the board of the London Pensions Fund Authority while Michael Cassidy will serve a second term...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star Moves
Mitchell joins Dalriada
UK professional trustee Dalriada Trustees has appointed Andrew Mitchell as its latest independent trustee representative. A law graduate, Andrew is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and has held office as company secretary of several listed...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star Moves
TPAS appoints seven members to board
The Pensions Advisory Service has revitalised its board with the following appointments.
Alex Balfour is the head of new media at London 2012 (LOCOG) the organisation responsible for staging the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games....
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star Moves
Tim Gardener joins AXA IM
AXA Investment Managers has appointed Tim Gardener as global head of consultant relations.
Tim, a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, joins from Mercer where he spent the past 33 years, most recently as global chief investment officer.
Jon...
Pensions hold no fear for consultants. Allison Plager finds out why
If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood,
Who ya gonna call?
Pensionbusters!
Apologies to the well-known 1980s film Ghostbusters, but who would ever have thought that the film’s theme song would adapt so well to pensions? The next stanza is just as good:
If there...
Do your advisers tick all the boxes? asks Andrew Hoddinott, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Trustees are facing ever more complex issues where decisions are increasingly informed by advice in areas beyond “traditional” pensions. At present, for example, employers’ proposals for their future pensions strategy are appearing on many trustee boards’ agendas –...
Pension Funds and their Advisers 2009 edited by Neil Blain (1,114 pages), ISBN 978 1 905366 36 1, £340 from
www.apinfo.co.uk
Pension Funds and their Advisers 2009, now in its 32nd edition (2010 edition out shortly), is one of the most useful pension directories around. Listing the top 2,700 major UK pension and 1,750 key advisers and suppliers to the UK pension scheme sector, virtually any company connected with UK...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star movers
Warming the NEST
Lawrence Churchill has been appointed as the chair of the NEST Corporation. He will start by recruiting other trustee members. Lawrence’s appointment is for an initial period of five years at a salary of £97,500 a year. Lawrence...
GMP equalisation – a change of heart?
Am I alone in being very troubled by the written statement issued by Angela Eagle (Minister of State for Pensions) on 28 January? It announces a radical and significant change in policy when the minister concludes that: Where a scheme member has...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star movers
IoA elects first woman president
Jane Curtis was elected president-elect of the Institute of Actuaries (IoA) on Monday 15 February 2010, the first woman to hold the post.
Jane, a Fellow of the IoA since 1987, is a managing principal with Hewitt, the company she has...
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Star Moves
Building the nest
Following Lawrence Churchill’s appointment as chair designate, further members of the Nest Corporation have been announced. They are: Jeannie Drake (deputy chair), Tom Boardman, Laurie Edmans, Dianne Hayter, Chris Hitchen, Julius Pursaill...
In surplus
The aggregate funding position (total assets minus total liabilities) of almost 7,400 defined benefit funds is estimated to have improved over the month to a surplus of £0.3bn at end March 2010. This is the first time the index has been in surplus since end June 2008.
www....
Fewer members
According to the Office for National Statistics, 50% of UK employees were members of an employer sponsored pension scheme in 2009, a drop from 55% membership in 1997. Since 1997 the number of employees with defined benefit plans has fallen from 46% to 33% in 2009.
www.statistics....
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star Moves
Adkins becomes CIO
The Pensions Trust, the leading UK multi-employer occupational pension scheme for the Third Sector, has appointed David Adkins as chief investment officer.
David, a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, has over 20 years’ experience in investment and...
Daniel Melley, Mercer, outlines the benefits of implemented consulting – the quiet revolution in pensions management
There is a quiet revolution going on within a growing number of pension trustee boards across the UK: they are turning to fiduciary management, or implemented consulting, as a means of managing the ongoing complexities and uncertainties facing their pension schemes. For many boards, the move to...
Pensions World keeps you up to date with the latest news of hires and flyers
Star Moves
New vice president for the Pensions Archive Trust
Malcolm McLean OBE has become a vice president of the Pensions Archive Trust. He joins its president, Mike Pomery, and vice presidents, Chris Lewin, Jane Newell, Tom Ross and Eddie Thomas. Malcolm is a consultant with Barnett...
Sion Cole, Hewitt Associates, highlights some questions trustees should ask a potential delegated provider
Even in recent years, there can have been few times when defined benefit pension scheme trustees have been under as much pressure as at the moment. They are caught trying to balance long term investment strategy decisions against the desire to control short term volatility. This is combined with...
