All articles by Benjamin Mercer – Page 32
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News
Arcadia, Debenhams the first high street dominoes to fall
High street retailer Debenhams became the latest domino to fall following the collapse of Philip Green’s Arcadia Group on Monday, with the pension schemes of both now entering the Pension Protection Fund assessment period.
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News
Simplifying language can increase pensions engagement
On the go: Almost half of savers do not know they can choose how much money they pay into their pensions, while a third misunderstand the purpose of auto-enrolment minimum caps, a new report has revealed.
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News
Majority of schemes struggle to obtain climate risk data
On the go: Nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) of pension professionals said they lack vital information necessary for them to report on climate risk in their pension schemes, according to a survey from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.
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News
Green pressured to save Arcadia pension schemes
On the go: Philip Green is being pressured to “make good” on promises to 10,000 members of the Arcadia pension scheme as his retail empire is on the brink of filing for administration, which would leave the scheme in the Pension Protection Fund.
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News
Phoenix launches new ESG default solution
On the go: The UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business has announced the launch of a new defined contribution default solution incorporating environmental, social and governance standards.
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News
Pension scheme strategies not fit for ‘purpose’
On the go: The number of trustees having to alter their scheme’s long-term plans in the past year suggests pension scheme strategies are “not fit for purpose”, according to new research.
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News
Cyber security awareness lags as attacks jump threefold
On the go: A third of respondents to a poll by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association confessed they did not know their organisation’s cyber security plans, despite cyber crimes surging by 86 per cent in a single quarter this year.
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News
RPI reform to leave linker owners short-changed from 2030
The government is to press ahead with controversial reforms to the retail price index leaving index-linked gilt holders worse off, but has decided to delay the move until 2030.
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News
Master trusts warn cost concerns overshadowing investment quality
Data crunch: Master trust providers are concerned that their clients excessively focus on cost to the detriment of investment propositions, according to a report by the Defined Contribution Investment Forum.
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News
PPF reserves could be ‘wiped out’ by one or two big claims
Pension Protection Fund chief executive Oliver Morley has warned that the lifeboat’s reserves could be wiped out by just a few large claims, while downplaying the risk of a post-Covid run of small-scheme claims.
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News
Experts wary on BoE governor’s DC pandemic recovery call
The governor of the Bank of England has suggested rules should be relaxed to allow defined contribution schemes to play a part in the post-Covid economic recovery, but experts warn some structural problems remain.
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News
HMRC’s leapfrog on insolvencies to hinder PPF recoveries
Government changes to prioritise the payment of insolvent businesses’ tax bills at the expense of other creditors could reduce recoveries by the Pension Protection Fund and adversely impact levy payers, according to the lifeboat.
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News
RPI reform holds back schemes’ inflation hedging
On the go: Inflation hedging decreased by 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of this year amid ongoing concerns about reform to the retail price index, according to the latest BMO Global Asset Management liability-driven investment survey.
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News
TPR issues guidance on protecting schemes from employer distress
New guidance for trustees on protecting their schemes from employer distress stresses the need for robust protections and integrated risk management.
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News
Labour pushes climate change, superfunds, dashboard amendments
Senior Labour party figures including leader Keir Starmer have put their names to a series of amendments to the pension schemes bill, covering climate change targets, superfunds legislation and the pensions dashboards.
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News
Should convicts be disqualified from pensions?
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News
MPs to pressure Opperman into commitment on scam ‘red flags’
Five members of parliament, including Work and Pensions Committee chair Stephen Timms, have tabled an amendment to the pension schemes bill designed to pressure pensions minister Guy Opperman into clarifying the government’s position on pension scams.
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News
High Court deems rectification law ‘settled’
The High Court has upheld the precedent that pension scheme documents can be overwritten by the courts if trustees can show that changes to them have been made in error.
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Podcasts
Podcast: Regulatory uncertainty puts workforce reform at risk
Podcast:The apparent contradiction between the Treasury’s new exit payment cap and existing Local Government Pension Scheme regulations risks limiting employers’ ability to restructure their workforce, warns Alison Murray, partner and head of public sector actuarial at Aon. She is joined by Linklaters counsel Anna Taylor, in a conversation also covering a new responsible investment bill and a proposed solution to the Section 75 problem.
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News
Scottish Widows to divest £440m from ESG failures
On the go: Scottish Widows is to divest £440m from companies that failed to meets its environmental, social and governance standards.