Schemes should hope for the best but prepare for the worst while awaiting the decision in the Wheels case advises Nick Warner, PKF Accountants & Business Advisers
Investment fund managers and their clients are carefully watching the progress of a European Court case which could mean VAT exemption for fees charged for the management of pension schemes. The case, brought jointly by Wheels Common Investment Fund and the National Association of Pension Funds (...
Embedding the six principles of good design and governance into auto-enrolment products
Our ongoing dialogue with key providers, advisers and industry representatives from the defined contribution (DC) pensions market is giving us valuable insight into how the industry feels it can embed our six principles of good design and governance into the products used for auto-enrolment. It has...
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has urged the pensions industry to engage with the government’s ‘Pensions Spotlight’.
The Spotlight is a government consultation period that runs from April 19 to May 10, during which pensions regulations will be scrutinised to see...
From 6 April 2012, employers sponsoring occupational pension schemes must consult scheme members for at least 60 days if they propose to change the rate at which pensions are increased or deferred benefits are revalued, but only where that change would be, or would be likely to be, less generous to...
A High Court judgment handed down today (April 4) says that a bankrupt could now be forced to draw their pension and hand it to their creditors, says Damon Watt, principal of EMW, the commercial law firm.
Until now a bankrupt’s undrawn pension has generally been considered out of reach of...
A recent high court judgment, Danks v Qinetiq Holdings, may make it easier for occupational pension schemes to change from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) as the measure for increasing pensions in payment and revaluing deferred pensions, even for benefits relating...
Pensions for men and women were supposed to have been equalised in the early 1990s, following a number of cases in the European Court.
It is extremely difficult to compare men’s and women’s pensions, as the details are, understandably, highly confidential, and the data is rarely...
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published a consultation paper outlining proposals to change the way pension transfer analysis is carried out. The FSA estimates that this will prevent an under-valuation of benefits of up to £20bn.
The proposed changes will clarify and update the...
Consumers have been warned to steer clear of pension offers that claim to be able to provide loans or release tax-free cash from people’s pension pots before they reach age 55. They may lose their entire pension and face tax charges of up to 55%.
The Pensions Regulator, Financial Services...
Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons, looks back over 21 years of pensions law reporting and speculates on its future
All jobs change over time. There used to be three-quarters of a million coal miners; now there are under 5,000. There used to be saddlers, candlemakers, tanners and typewriter-makers until modern technology made them obsolete. Children marvel at CDs and books as at ancient artefacts.
The jobs of...
LexisNexis UK, the publisher of Pensions World and Occupational Pensions, has launched Lexis®PSL Pensions, the latest addition to its legal intelligence product Lexis®PSL. Designed as a single online resource with both practical guidance and key primary sources, LexisPSL Pensions enables...
What constitutes a money purchase benefit could have wider implications for the administration of pension schemes explains Jeremy Goodwin, Eversheds
There has been a lot of fuss in the pensions press recently about whether something is or is not a money purchase (ie defined contribution – DC) pension scheme. It is tempting to see this issue as a mere technical point – something for pension lawyers and actuaries to debate perhaps...
Helen-Mary Finney, Aon Hewitt, explains the amended regulations on employer debts in multi-employer pension schemes
Corporate restructuring can be inhibited by the rules which operate when an employer leaves a multi-employer defined benefit pension scheme.
In April 2010, easements were introduced to the employer debt regulations, to help participating employers manage debts that arise under s75 of the Pensions...
End of year roundup - January 2012
Defined benefit (DB) schemes continued to feel pressure on their funding positions, defined contribution (DC) came under greater scrutiny and the industry started preparing for the forthcoming pension reforms that will see between 5 and 8m people saving more or saving for the first time.
Getting...
The Pensions Bill 2010-11 finally received Royal Assent today. The Pensions Act 2011 (the “Act”) brings into force several important changes, including the controversial increase in State Pensions Age (SPA), changes following the switch from RPI to CPI for increases to pensions and,...
Tim Cox of Linklaters has been voted the best all round pensions lawyer for the third year running in the annual survey of pensions lawyers, conducted by Pensions World magazine and featured in the November issue.
The runner up as best all round lawyer was David Pollard (Freshfields) followed...
It is now just under a year until the employers with more than 120,000 staff will have to start enrolling their employees into a pension scheme. During the first six months of auto-enrolment, only 600 employers will have to comply, but these employers represent about one third of the working...
On 5 November it will be 20 years since Robert Maxwell’s (right) mysterious death in 1991 and the discovery that £450m was missing from the pension funds of his companies. Kenneth Trench, OBE, former chairman of the Maxwell Pensioners Action Group, recalls the sensational events
The...
Over 1.3 million employers will be subject to the new pension duties in the next six years, Michael O’Higgins, chair of the Pensions Regulator, told delegates at the National Association of Pension Funds’ (NAPF) annual conference.By October 2014, upwards of 50,000 employers each month...
Pensions administrations need a ‘safe harbour’ where they can talk to scheme members and employees about the advantages of paying into a pension without fear they will be deemed to have given financial advice, says the Pensions Administration Standards Authority (PASA).
Commenting,...
