The impact of market turmoil on pension funding is likely to intensify the Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) efforts to ensure that regular monitoring of the covenant by trustees takes place, says Mercer. The company is advising trustees to anticipate this move and ensure that the covenant...
The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) has launched TrustSec, an online guide for the secretary to the trustee board. The online resource, developed in partnership with international law firm Mayer Brown’s pension practice, helps those in the role to develop their pensions knowledge and...
Ceri Jones, financial journalist, reports on the training available for trustees who have so much to learn in so little time
The obligations on pension scheme trustees have widened in recent years, at the same time as they are struggling to contend with a swiftly changing regulatory environment and a wide range of extremely complex issues that range from sponsor covenants, to enhanced transfer values, age...
Nick Secrett, PricewaterhouseCoopers, has the latest instalment in the CPI v RPI saga
Proposals to allow pension schemes to rewrite rules to swap the indexation of benefits from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) caused a stir when first mooted last year. June saw two important announcements in this area.
Firstly, the government confirmed that no...
The auditor should be a critical friend to trustees, offering practical advice and understanding argues Giles Mullins, Grant Thornton
All too often the audit is seen as a compliance exercise and, in large part, this is due to the way in which the profession has responded to the regulatory and legal framework in which it operates. However, stakeholders are increasingly taking an interest in what we do.
While it is unfortunate...
Gemma Hanley, Eversheds, writes on the risks and the benefits to trustees of delegating investment decisions.
Delegation of trustees’ investment decisions keeps developing despite trustees’ powers and duties remaining fundamentally unchanged. Trustees should be alive to their duties and to the risks, not just the benefits, associated with delegation.
Trustees’ powers of delegation...
The issue of improving scheme governance and how to go about it cannot be ignored any longer advises Adam Stanley, Punter Southall
Governance is an increasingly fashionable word used to cover a wide range of topics. As a result, the sense of what governance stands for can often be lost.
The common message from advisers is that trustees need to improve scheme governance, but many trustees do not understand in practical...
The need for contingency planning has never been greater, says Richard Setchim
The seemingly unlikely is happening with increased frequency. Trustees take a longer term view than most, but the tragic recent events in Japan, New Zealand, Middle East, Gulf of Mexico, on top of the turmoil in the financial markets, challenge everyone to question preparedness for – so-...
ACE has been appointed with its partner OPDU (The Occupational Pensions Defence Union) to provide and administer pension trustee liability cover to the NEST Corporation, the trustee body responsible for running the UK Government’s new flagship National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)...
The European Court has ruled that scheme members must be treated equally whichever planet they come from warns Andrew Hoddinott, PricewaterhouseCoopers
On 1 March 2011 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided to remove the exemption from the equal treatment principle that currently exists for gender dependency justified by relevant actuarial/statistical data. From 21 December 2012, it will no longer be possible for insurers to provide...
The Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) will host its inaugural open meeting for members on 31 March in London.
AMNT is a not –for-profit organisation, which supports member-nominated trustees, member-nominated directors and employee representatives, of UK based pension...
Saq Hussain, PricewaterhouseCoopers, explains the defined contribution retirement reform effective from April 2011
Retirement options for defined contribution (DC) members are changing from April 2011. The requirement to annuitise by age 75 has already gone and a DC member will have more freedom in what they can do with their DC “pot”.
The government has confirmed that individuals will be able to...
Michael Burt, Mercer, looks at the constantly changing requirements for trustee executive support
The pensions world has moved on apace over the last decade and does not appear to be slowing down. Not only have trustees’ workloads increased significantly, but the way schemes are managed has also changed. In a world of as it happens news and instant communications, trustees want to be...
Many trustee boards still fail to sufficiently and proactively monitor their sponsors’ covenant, according to Mercer’s recent trustee survey.
Trustee boards’ reluctance to tackle areas of conflict of interest and general discomfort in challenging the employer are behaviours...
Investment management fees paid by pension trustees increased by around 11%, or £300m across the industry compared with last year according to LCP research. This is almost exclusively as a result of a recovery in market values. Its Investment Management Fees Survey 2011 showed that a...
Many trustee boards still fail to sufficiently and proactively monitor their sponsors’ covenant, according to Mercer’s Trustee Survey. Trustee boards’ reluctance to tackle areas of conflict of interest and general discomfort in challenging the employer are behaviours often...
Ellen Kelleher, PricewaterhouseCoopers, on how good governance can help members to help themselves
The governance of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes is likely to come increasingly under the spotlight over the coming years. Trustee decisions for DC schemes can have a direct effect on the level of pension that members receive. As larger numbers of members are in DC schemes for a...
2010 has been an eventful year in the pensions world, but trustees will still have a lot on their plate in 2011.
The NAPF asked pensions managers and trustees what their biggest challenge in the new year would be. About a quarter (23%) said the switch from RPI to CPI was the biggest test; 19%...
Trustees need to amend their scheme rules before 6 April 2011 to keep benefit limits reminds Navneet Bassan, PricewaterhouseCoopers
While all registered pensions schemes are now subject to the pre-A Day tax rules, many still retain features of the old tax regime, such as the earnings cap. This has been possible by relying on certain regulations giving schemes temporary overriding transitional protection.
However, this...
Trustees need to be aware of a new offence under s7 of the new Bribery Act
The Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010 and is expected to come into effect in April 2011. Its purpose is to reform the criminal law of bribery to provide for a new consolidated scheme of bribery offences to cover bribery both in the UK and abroad. Of particular...
