All Features articles – Page 27
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Features
Reports predict bulk derisking boom as deficits rise
Around two-thirds of defined benefit schemes worth more than £1bn are exploring derisking strategies, according to research, with climbing deficits and product innovation seen as key drivers.
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Lancashire expands credit and sticks with EM despite volatility
Lancashire Pension Fund has moved deeper into non-investment grade credit and emerging market debt, aiming to ride out volatility, as it seeks return in a low-yield environment.
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Features
How UK mastertrusts are designing DC benchmarks
The growing mastertrust sector has created a range of investment benchmarks, but pressure to demonstrate value has led consultants to call for more focus on performance yardsticks that reflect scheme memberships.
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Features
Can a scheme rebrand reignite member engagement?
Any other business: The ongoing pension reforms inevitably have pushed schemes to reevaluate how they engage with members and update their communication materials.
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Features
How schemes could use secondary debt market after Kaupthing ruling
Legal experts have said a High Court ruling allowing schemes to sell section 75 debts – triggered when an employer leaves a pension scheme – could reduce running costs by speeding up the exit of sponsoring employers.
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Features
Off on a Christmas jolly? How to keep on the safe side of industry hospitality
Whether the 'good old days' of corporate hospitality provided important relationship building, or were symbolic of an overly cosy relationship between pension funds and their providers, the consensus is that times have changed.
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Features
Wolseley moves to quell creeping opt-out rate
Plumbing products supplier Wolseley UK is working to battle a climbing opt-out rate, reflecting the challenge of keeping new joiners in workplace pension schemes despite attractive terms.
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Features
Royal Mail seeks member feedback on comms strategy
The Royal Mail pension scheme is consulting members on its communication strategy to make sure they understand their benefits following a period of high-profile change for the country’s five-century-old postal service.
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Features
WMPF markets third-party services to neutralise costs
West Midlands Pension Fund plans to market its internal support services to third parties in order to become cost-neutral by offsetting its administration costs.
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Features
CofE scheme mulls infrastructure diversification to drive returns
The Church of England Pensions Board is considering spreading its infrastructure portfolio outside Europe, following a similar decision to rebalance its property portfolio towards the US and Asia in a hunt for return.
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Features
Non-disclosure agreements: schemes give mixed reaction
Scheme managers and consultants have given a mixed response to the question of non-disclosure agreements for fund management fees, after concerns were raised that they may inhibit schemes’ ability to negotiate value for members.
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Features
Lloyds scheme saves £710m with pensionable pay freeze
One of the UK’s ‘big four’ banks Lloyds Banking Group has made a £710m saving by halting pensionable pay increases, as it looks to reduce the cost of its defined benefit arrangement.
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Features
Caterpillar scheme delays derisking over stock volatility concerns
Caterpillar Pension Plan has postponed a decision to cut its equity exposure to increase its liability-driven investment allocation as a result of concerns over stock market volatility.
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Features
RSPB scheme migrates to contingent assets to underpin 17-year recovery plan
The bird protection charity RSPB has set up a £56.4m contingent asset agreement with its pension scheme as part of a wider effort to reduce the funding deficit.
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Features
Cambridgeshire fund tightens payment reporting ahead of regulatory changes
Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund has mandated its largest participating employer to detail member contributions, in order to more effectively monitor late payments to the scheme as new reporting requirements come into play.
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Features
South Yorks ups property, EMD and high-yield in search for returns
South Yorkshire Pension Fund has increased its allocation to property and placed greater emphasis on emerging market and high-yield debt as it searches for greater balance between risk and returns.
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Features
Hunting yield in an unpredictable fixed income market
A slump in government bond yields has caused some defined benefit schemes to delay derisking and look for greater returns in more volatile assets.
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Features
EE ditches gilts for absolute return as institutions hunt yield
The largest UK mobile group’s defined benefit pension scheme is removing a set allocation to index-linked gilts in favour of absolute return bonds and hedge funds, the latest institutional investor to reset its portfolio in a hunt for value.
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Features
HSBC plans cash lifestyle default for ex-DB members
HSBC Pension Scheme plans to default members of its defined benefit section to its cash lifestyle fund following the closure of the section in July next year, as part of a wider post-Budget review of its defined contribution arrangements.
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Features
Warburtons kicks off three-pronged comms strategy
NAPF Annual Conference 2014: Warburtons, the UK’s largest bread baker, has this year launched the first of a three-part plan to boost engagement among a new swath of pension savers.