Charities Pensions Club (CPC), a group set up to support pension schemes in the third sector, is to offer its members a financial wellbeing support service as part of a partnership with First Actuarial.
The partnership was established last year and was initially focused on actuarial issues, but has been extended and broadened for its second year.
Members of the CPC will now have free access to First Actuarial’s Financial MOT tool, which offers users a simple budgeting, planning and debt management service.
Chloe Scragg, director of the CPC, said the Financial MOT was “a great member benefit”. She added: “Not every charity has a dedicated pension manager and many struggle with limited resources. Working with the CPC, First Actuarial gives charities specialist support and even second opinions on pension advice.”
In a recent survey of the charity sector, First Actuarial highlighted contrasting fortunes among non-profit groups’ pension schemes.
Across 300 charities’ defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, the consultancy found an aggregate surplus of roughly £600m, with approximately £400m potentially available to be released once the Pension Schemes Bill is enacted. Around a quarter of pension schemes had a surplus on a buyout funding basis.
However, for schemes with less than £50m in assets, the funding position was much worse. First Actuarial reported an aggregate deficit among these funds of roughly £400m. It also found that 88% of charity DB pension schemes in deficit did not have enough reserves to de-risk through a bulk annuity transaction, and warned that three in five would not be able to generate sufficient returns to meet ongoing expenses.
Natalie Ogden, associate partner at First Actuarial, said the survey highlighted the “gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in charity pension funding”.
“First Actuarial shares the CPC’s commitment to helping charities of all sizes to meet their pension obligations and it’s great to be working with them to that end,” Ogden added.
