All Features articles – Page 28
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Features
SABMiller to offer pension-plus savings options after 20% opt out
NAPF Annual Conference 2014: Drinks company SABMiller will launch additional savings vehicles after one in five workers opted out of its UK defined contribution scheme, with reductions in tax relief a principal factor.
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Features
Hillingdon targets equity dividends, looks to lock in gains
London Borough of Hillingdon Pension Fund has shifted its equity portfolio away from UK holdings and towards unconstrained strategies, but the move has so far failed to perform.
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Features
Imerys consults on ceasing DB accrual after merger
Mineral specialist Imerys is undertaking a consultation to cease accrual in its defined benefit pension scheme, following the completion of a scheme merger earlier this year.
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Features
Hyde Group uses employees to design flex bens
Housing provider Hyde Group has set up a flexible, employee-designed system for scheme members to access their benefits, in a drive to retain and attract talent.
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Features
Tyne and Wear switches PE benchmark to limit relative volatility
Tyne and Wear Pension Fund has switched to using an absolute return benchmark for its private equity investments in a bid to reduce the relative volatility of returns.
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Features
British Coal latest to unwind hedge funds, putting trust in property
The British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme is unwinding its hedge fund holdings and increasing its property, the latest high-profile fund to drop an asset class beset by fee and transparency concerns.
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Features
SME to auto-enrol nine months early to ease process
Nutrition provider Dr Schär UK has completed preparations to begin auto-enrolment in January, nine months ahead of its staging date, in order to ease its reporting and payroll processes.
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Features
BAE sees four in 10 agree to give up pension increases
BAE Systems Pension Scheme has experienced a 38 per cent take-up of a pension increase exchange offered to pensioner members, in an exercise to reduce its inflation risk.
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Features
Study: poor alts benchmarking hides £1.1bn of underperformance
A report released today finds that inappropriate benchmarks used by local authority pension funds and their advisers for alternative investments have artificially flattered performance, with its authors blaming a governance failure in the sector.
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Features
Nationwide builds inflation hedge, ups matching assets to derisk
Nationwide Pension Fund has reduced its exposure to return-seeking assets and carried out its first significant inflation hedge, as capital adequacy rules drive banking and building society sponsors to reduce funding volatility.
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Features
The Pensions Trust to open doors to private sector DB as employers outsource
The Pensions Trust plans to start accepting private sector employers into the scheme from late October, hoping to attract the growing number of small and medium-sized companies outsourcing the management of defined benefit schemes.
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Features
Somerset and Devon tighten shared admin strategy to boost employer comms
Somerset County Council Pension Fund and Devon County Council Fund will establish a formal administration strategy in order to improve communication between the schemes and its participating employers.
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Features
Westminster moves towards global equities to free up managers
The City of Westminster Superannuation Fund has decreased its UK equity holdings in favour of global stocks to give managers greater flexibility and boost performance.
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Features
USS revamps covenant assessment model in face of funding challenge
The Universities Superannuation Scheme has opted for a more thorough covenant assessment due to changes in higher education funding and an expected increase in its deficit from this year’s triennial valuation.
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Features
Diageo tips into matching assets after hitting trigger
Diageo Pension Scheme has switched 5 per cent of its assets from its growth to its matching portfolio after hitting a derisking trigger, tipping its investment balance towards holdings that track liabilities.
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Features
Royal Mail rachets up hedging derivatives to reduce risk
The Royal Mail Pension Plan has extended liability hedging in its portfolio by substantially boosting its use of swaps and gilt repurchase agreements, as it seeks to reduce risk in the scheme.
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Features
Xerox to protect repayment power amid legal uncertainty
Xerox Final Salary Pension Scheme is planning a resolution allowing it to continue to make repayments to its sponsor, but legal experts are split on whether such a move is necessary or will even be effective.
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Features
Scheme managers raise doubts on joint LGPS governance boards
Local authority schemes have raised concerns over whether incoming pensions boards can be combined with their existing section 101 committees, one of the options in the government’s consultation on governance in the Local Government Pension Scheme.
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Features
Bromley mulls 10% illiquids allocation as cash flow worsens
The London Borough of Bromley Pension Fund is considering a 10 per cent allocation to illiquid assets to provide greater returns and inflation linkage, in expectation of turning cash-flow negative within seven years.
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Features
Dixons Carphone uses restaurant discounts to win 80% sign-up for online portal
Electronics retailer Dixons Carphone has seen close to 80 per cent of employees log in to its new benefits portal since it was launched in June, after it offered members incentives in a bid to drive engagement.