Pensions bill looks to provide substance to 'defined ambition'

Editor's blog: The pensions reform hamster wheel is spinning again and the industry is rushing to see what surprises are hidden in the pensions bill laid before Parliament today.

As promised, the bill clarifies the distinction between three types of scheme structure, and more importantly gives the industry an extra initialism meaningless to ordinary people – "DA" for defined ambition: 

Source: Pension Schemes Bill

It also demonstrates the difficulty of hardwiring the 'soft promise' (translation: promise that is not quite a promise) in DA schemes such as collective defined contribution, with a large segment codifying the target returns embedded in these types of schemes. 

"As long as they make sure the target benefits are not guaranteed... it is not subject to the scheme funding requirements," explained Danny Wilding, partner at Barnett Waddingham.

Click here for the full story