All Opinion articles – Page 22
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Opinion
Why s72 requests have ramped up in recent years
Analysis: The Pensions Regulator's "clearer, quicker and tougher" approach is one of the main reasons behind the recent spike in section 72 requests, experts say.
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OpinionMultiple tax treatments create yet another gap
Editorial: Never underestimate the power of well-organised workers providing a public service, even when faced with a chancellor whose conservative idols took on the trades unions.
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OpinionWho will protect us from slow-footed regulators?
I was not working as a journalist in the late 1980s when the last big personal pension scandal broke, but the spectre of this mis-selling debacle has loomed large over the financial services sector for three decades.
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OpinionLarge DC schemes are warming to target date funds
Data crunch: Target date funds have seen widespread adoption in the US defined contribution market, but the UK has so far resisted change with schemes overwhelmingly using lifestyle approaches. However, data from our most recent DC Monitor survey indicates that an increasing proportion of schemes are gravitating towards target date.
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OpinionTPR: We do not care what your name is and neither does the law
Employers love to rebrand themselves. A new name and logo can help refocus a business on what it wants to achieve and how it wants to do it.
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OpinionDoes your manager have the right mindset for persistence?
Adrian Furnham has three doctorates, has written over 650 scientific papers and 55 books, and has dedicated part of his career to identifying the behavioural flaws that make investors with good ideas unlikely to perform – but sometimes asset managers make it easy for him.
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OpinionGearing up for GMP equalisation
Guaranteed minimum pensions are still causing a lot of head-scratching in the pensions industry. While the High Court confirmed in October 2018 that pension benefits do need to be equalised for the effect of GMPs, practitioners have since been thinking about how to ensure that schemes are able to implement equalisation smoothly.
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OpinionThe end is nigh for DB pensions
In 2001, I returned from a year working in Canada to a UK pensions industry that seemed to be changing rapidly.
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OpinionFive building blocks for impact management
Impact investing – buying assets with the explicit intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental outcomes alongside a financial return – is a growing practice that now covers almost £201bn in assets under management.
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OpinionPension risk transfers: How can we best manage employee anxiety?
We are in a time of unprecedented change in workplace pension provision. Organisations everywhere are focused on managing their financial risks, and that can mean closure of defined benefit schemes, amalgamation of group plans, scheme buyouts, and even reduction of future benefits.
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OpinionSimplifying our taxation system may have to wait
Editorial: Do pension issues keep Boris Johnson awake at night? At first instance one suspects the plight of pensioners comes some distance behind gaining power and self-preservation on our presumed next prime minister’s list of priorities.
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OpinionThe mirage of independence
What does independence mean to you? Does it mean being free of control or influence by third parties? Does it mean making decisions without fear or favour?
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OpinionDRCs have little or no measurable impact on regular dividends
In the past 20 years or so, most private-sector defined benefit pension schemes have been closed or frozen.
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OpinionHave DGFs had their day?
Data crunch: Diversified growth funds continue to face several challenges, from performance problems to competition from new product types. But despite these obstacles, this is not the end of the road for DGFs, argues Broadridge’s Jonathan Libre.
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OpinionPension funds must not ‘sell our future’
The UK government has finally sprung into action on climate change with a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, but will this be enough? Accounting for Sustainability’s Kerry Perkins and Sustineri’s Richard Folland set out a checklist for trustees to play their part in preventing a climate emergency.
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OpinionSmall schemes, big changes: How to tackle the UK governance problem
The United Kingdom has a small schemes problem. With the Pensions Regulator zeroing in on any sign of weak governance at sub-scale funds, it is time for trustees to take action.
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OpinionPursuing simplicity remains vital
So much has happened over the close to 30 years since I started out in pensions, but I suspect our industry’s ultimate goal remains the same – ensuring the many members of the pension arrangements we oversee receive the pension promise that has been made to them.
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OpinionA sharper pensions system offers savers safe harbour
If there is any positive to be taken from the downfall of ‘star’ fund manager Neil Woodford, the source of much chatter in the investment world this month, it is that it reminds us of the value of workplace institutions and the collective saving systems we enjoy in the UK.
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Opinion
What is the most important feature of a good DC scheme?
Data crunch: There is no doubt that defined contribution pension schemes face a large number of challenges in their quest to deliver good member outcomes.
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OpinionMNTs need clarity on superfund regime to make transfers palatable
Superfunds are said to be the new kid on the defined benefit consolidation block: offering non-insured risk transfer, and something different from traditional master trusts.