Editorial: The efforts made to outdo each other with yet another game, more champagne or an enormous plastic animal at the stand have reached a new level at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s Annual Conference this year.
The efforts to outdo each other with yet another game, more champagne or an enormous plastic animal at the stand reached a new level at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s annual conference this year.
One stand was clearly modelled on a Swiss high street bank (rows of safe deposit boxes), another tried to emulate a Formula 1 pit stop with Lego cars; there were magic tricks, ping pong, quizzes and even a psychic – in case you wanted an edge on the markets.
The highlights continued in the auditoriums: from media-shy pensions minister Richard Harrington making an appearance to outline his views, to broadcaster Andrew Neil’s insightful speech about why Brexit will be low down on the EU’s priority list for at least another year.
There was also the interim report by the PLSA’s DB Taskforce, announced a year earlier. Led by Ashok Gupta, the group looked at how defined benefit schemes could best position themselves to avoid default – as reported in our article, Gupta cited some stark figures.
The DB market is too fragmented, Gupta said, and one of the suggestions the taskforce made to improve the position of DB schemes is consolidation.
How precisely this could be achieved for private sector pension schemes is not clear. Should companies pool scheme assets, or share resources with competitors? Or should there be multi-employer DB schemes?
Some UK employers already have several schemes under one umbrella as separate sections, but how many ingredients can be added? How many cooks are needed?
In the interview, Lesley Titcomb, chief executive of the Pensions Regulator, also pointed to pooling as a possible way forward, but mainly in the defined contribution space.
The new pension bill, if passed, will mean many mastertrusts might not meet the new standards that have been introduced; our article outlines the areas the bill addresses.
Meanwhile, the Treasury has said it will not introduce a secondary annuities market after all. It has certainly been an eventful week for pensions – once more.
Sandra Wolf is editor at Pensions Expert. You can follow her on Twitter @SandraCWK and the team @pensions_expert.
