All Features articles – Page 7
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Features
Dashboard innovators ‘constrained by environment’
New PASA board member Paul Sturgess tells Pensions Expert that pensions administration is upping its game, and outlines key challenges for the pensions dashboard project.
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Features
TPR: 700 DB schemes may never reach full funding
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.
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Features
E-admin hopes dashed by data quality
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.
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Features
Cameron: Hold government to auto-enrolment promises
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.
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Features
Authorised master trusts look ahead to supervision
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.
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FeaturesMaster trusts disappoint on ESG stewardship
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.
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FeaturesNo easy way out of USS strikes
Analysis: University staff across the UK are on strike over pensions for the second time in as many years, and despite detailed scrutiny of the affordability of their pensions since the first walkout in early 2018, academics still do not feel they have been listened to.
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Features
Trustees back partial transfers for big pension pots
Data crunch: The number of schemes offering partial defined benefit transfers is increasing, with the option being targeted at members with large transfer values, new data show.
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Features
More action needed to help self-employed women
Analysis: Reform should be pushed up the agenda to support self-employed women and reduce the biggest challenges of the gender gap, experts say.
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Features
Trustees insulated from Rothesay-Pru back-book fallout
While a court’s decision to block a £12bn annuity back-book deal between Prudential and Rothesay Life has profound implications for the insurance industry, experts say defined benefit trustees should be safe as long as they do their homework on bulk annuity providers.
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Features
Civil service admin issues signal wider malaise
The government is recouping £2.7m in overpayments to civil service pensioners, but experts warn issues with administration, data and technology continue to impact members and businesses across the industry.
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FeaturesApp targeting self-employed aims to ‘democratise investment’
With fewer than a fifth of the UK’s self-employed population saving into a pension, one start-up has challenged traditional providers and savings solutions in a bid to address the issue.
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Features
Barnet sees improvement in admin following regulatory intervention
The London Borough of Barnet Superannuation Fund has introduced a range of new internal controls to improve its administration in response to sustained criticism of its service levels and intervention by the Pensions Regulator.
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Features
How can UK climb up global pension rankings?
Data Crunch: The UK is now the fourteenth-best pension system in the world scoring a C+, according to the 2019 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, but low adequacy and sustainability scores suggest there is still a long way to go to improve retirement outcomes for members.
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Features
Are you responsible?
WEALTH at work’s Jonathan Watts-Lay looks into who is held responsible if a member transfers benefits and is subsequently found to have been scammed.
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FeaturesMinimum AE contributions cannot achieve ‘comfort’ in retirement
The industry has welcomed the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s retirement income standards, but experts warn current minimum contribution levels are not enough to get average savers over the line from a minimum to a moderate lifestyle standard.
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Features
Can schemes save members from retirement age lottery?
Analysis: Workers risk missing out on optimum retirement savings by not supplying their workplace pension provider with an intended retirement age, experts warn. But in the age of inertia, what can be done?
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Features
Government must revise AE or ‘risk leaving a whole generation behind’
Current minimum automatic enrolment contribution levels are not enough to plug the savings gap, with more savers expecting to work well into retirement, say experts.
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Features
Buy-in pricing could improve in post-Brexit world
Brexit volatility could be a good thing for defined benefit pension schemes looking to insure liability risk, according to experts.
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Features
Industry cool on VC despite patient capital drive
The government has doubled down on its view that no change to the level of the charge cap is needed to encourage defined contribution schemes to access venture capital investments, but some experts doubt whether such high-risk investments are a fit for default funds in the first place.