The Labour Party would consider removing pensions from the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA's) remit, according to Shadow Pensions Minister Gregg McClymont.
Mr McClymont said: “There is this concern that the FSA has too much on its plate. If we accept that vision, then we have to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Our legislators have been overindulging in regulation again says
Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
The whole point of a winter festival is to overdo it. Certainly in the northern climes, the grey skies and short days make it almost imperative to eat too much and drink too much. It is too cold and wet to work on the farm and we all need something to keep us going until the spring. But we all know...
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...
The Pensions Regulator has published a statement for trustees to clarify the key differences between defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) schemes, and the behaviours that DC trustees should demonstrate.
The regulator’s analysis of its scheme governance survey continues to...
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,...
Employers look likely to be submerged beneath the flood of guidance on auto-enrolment says
Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
Adair Turner was a humble mister in 2005 when he drafted the solution to Britain’s pension problem; a few days after it was published he was emphatically ennobled, perhaps as a modest thank you from a grateful government.
There is now just about a year before what he recommended begins to...
The Pensions Regulator has published a response Enabling good member outcomes in work-based pensions to its industry discussion paper on the regulation of DC pensions.
It says that disclosure of scheme charges should be transparent and comparable in order to help employers and members to...
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have issued a warning against pension unlocking schemes, which are designed to provide members with access to pension funds before they reach age 55. According to the FSA, these unlocking schemes work by transferring pension funds to a corporate bond and...
Preparing for auto-enrolment – where can employers find out more?
In less than 18 months, the employers with the earliest staging dates will begin to automatically enrol their staff into workplace pension schemes. Over a million employers will be subject to these new duties and our aim is to make it as easy as possible for them to comply.
There is wide...
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued a checklist that provides trustees with an overview of what they might need to do to ensure that their scheme is ready to be used for automatic enrolment.
From next year, the UK's largest employers will have to enrol all eligible workers into a...
