All Features articles – Page 6

  • Features

    Widening spread on buyouts makes self-sufficiency harder to justify

    2020-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Risk-averse pension schemes are going bargain hunting.

  • Features

    Section 75: Ticking time-bomb in need of reform, say lawyers

    2020-05-11T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: Experts say section 75 debts and flexible apportionment agreements, one of the most complex areas of pensions law, is crying out for change.

  • Features

    Mounting Covid-19 death toll a bitter reprieve for pension schemes

    2020-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: As the country anxiously tracks the accumulating death toll from Covid-19, pension trustees will eventually be forced to do a more perverse calculation: how much will the mounting fatalities reduce their funding deficits?

  • Features

    Coronavirus hits unhealthy DB schemes hard

    2020-05-02T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: A new report from consultancy Barnett Waddingham has found that the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the funding divide between UK defined benefit schemes, with severe implications for those at the bottom of the pile.

  • Cyber crime
    Features

    Does lockdown shift leave pensions exposed to cyber crime?

    2020-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: Covid-19 is not the only invisible threat looming over some of the UK’s most vulnerable citizens.

  • Features

    Scottish Widows hires former regulator as master trust chair

    2020-04-20T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Warwick-Thompson has been at centre of the pensions industry since 1986, in a variety of top jobs including leading roles at the Pensions Regulator and in the Local Government Pension Scheme, and now clutching his first non-executive role as chair of the Scottish Widows Master Trust.

  • Counting the cost of coronavirus
    Features

    Counting the cost of coronavirus

    2020-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Counting the costof coronavirus Coronavirus and the market volatility that has greeted it has dealt a triple blow to defined benefit schemes - damaging asset values, causing wild swings in liabilities, and weakening sponsor covenant. Pensions Expert looks at which sectors will be worst hit, and what trustees can do ...

  • Features

    Opportunity knocks, but can active managers actually capitalise?

    2020-03-27T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Active asset managers have been making some bold claims amid the market maelstrom unleashed by Covid-19.

  • Features

    Fraud costs pensions £6bn every year

    2020-03-03T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Almost a decade after a wave of pension liberation tax schemes hit the UK retirement sector, fraudulent activity is still having a detrimental impact on savers – costing schemes £6bn every year, according to the latest analysis.

  • Features

    Camden grills manager as ESG pressure mounts

    2020-03-02T00:00:00Z

    The £1.7bn Camden Pension Fund has placed one of its managers under review over concerns that it would not be able to comply with the scheme’s climate risk reporting requirements.

  • Features

    Shooting the lights out: Bright ideas to help portfolio construction

    2020-02-16T00:00:00Z

    Shootingthe lights out Bright ideas to aid yourportfolio construction in 2020 Enterkeywords.sh_embed {position: relative;height: auto;width:100%;z-index: 0;overflow: hidden;background-color: #222;color: white;font-family: 'Lato', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;}.sh_embed * {-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;-moz-box-sizing: border-box;box-sizing: border-box;}.sh_embed .sh-embed-bg {position: absolute;width: 110%;height: 110%;top: -5%;left: -5%;z-index: -1;background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.8);}.sh_embed #embed_article {display: none;}.sh_embed .sh-embed-img {display: block;zoom: 1;opacity: .5;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-fit: cover;image-rendering: ...

  • Features

    Hundreds of thousands of micro pots suffer remorseless attrition

    2020-02-16T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Eight years after the auto-enrolment revolution, millions of workers’ pensions are left languishing in master trusts when they move jobs. 

  • Features

    Dashboard innovators ‘constrained by environment’

    2020-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Paul Sturgess had the option to step back from driving innovation in administration in 2005. Having fallen into insurance and pensions at the Prudential in 1979, a career spanning a quarter of a century had seen him take part in the successful management buyout and sale of FPS, a pioneer of online automated defined contribution administration.

  • Great inflation robbery
    Features

    The great inflation robbery: How RPI's end could sting trustees

    2020-01-15T00:00:00Z

    The great inflation robbery - how trustees could be caught out by the end of RPIWhile Brexit is set to dominate the political agenda again in 2020, for the pensions industry there is another major shift on the horizon that could have a profound impact on funding levels and outcomes ...

  • Features

    TPR: 700 DB schemes may never reach full funding

    2020-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Forty-nine defined benefit schemes are in a parlous state with funding under 50 per cent of their liabilities, the latest data from the Pensions Regulator reveals.

  • Features

    E-admin hopes dashed by data quality

    2020-01-13T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: Pensions administrators and open finance enthusiasts may have one eye on the ‘e-admin’ future of full dashboard compliance, modelling and targeted engagement, but a survey of trustees reveals the perennial roadblock – poor-quality member data.

  • Features

    Cameron: Hold government to auto-enrolment promises

    2020-01-06T00:00:00Z

    Steven Cameron is a pensions legend, having notched up an impressive 35 years in the industry. Despite this, his enthusiasm remains undimmed, and has the Aegon public affairs director taking a new role as chair of The Investing and Saving Alliance’s retirement policy council.

  • Features

    Authorised master trusts look ahead to supervision

    2020-01-02T00:00:00Z

    The newly authorised master trust sector is bracing itself for a further increase in regulatory scrutiny as the supervision regime takes hold, since one-to-one supervision and annual statement requirements could amount to something approaching a “mini-authorisation” once a year.

  • Getty Images
    Features

    Master trusts disappoint on ESG stewardship

    2019-12-30T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: Pension fund scores on environment, social and governance stewardship remain low, with master trusts delegating responsibility on climate activity to their asset managers, new research shows.

  • DB_endgame (teaser)
    Features

    How trustees can better navigate the DB endgame

    2019-12-11T00:00:00Z

    How trustees can betternavigate the DB endgame Talking Point: Experts at a recent PensionsExpert event discuss what DB 'endgame'options are available to pension schemes asthey mature and their funding levels improveEnterkeywords.sh_embed {position: relative;height: auto;width:100%;z-index: 0;overflow: hidden;background-color: #222;color: white;font-family: 'Lato', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;}.sh_embed * {-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;-moz-box-sizing: border-box;box-sizing: border-box;}.sh_embed .sh-embed-bg ...