Latest articles from Vikki Massarano

What greater regulatory scrutiny means for small schemes

Vikki Massarano

From the blog: In addition to announcing its new “tougher” stance, the Pensions Regulator has said it will take a more proactive approach to smaller schemes’ compliance with its requirements and expectations.

This followed a survey of defined benefit schemes’ approach to the Pensions Regulator’s DB funding code of practice, showing that while most schemes are currently following the regulator’s standards of governance, smaller schemes are lagging behind.

The regulator has concluded that smaller schemes tend to have poorer governance standards, particularly around assessing trustee fitness and performance, and in relation to taking and managing funding risk.

Is your scheme closed in the way you think?

Vikki Massarano

From the blog: Significantly fewer than 1m lucky individuals were active members of private sector occupational DB schemes in 2015, compared with almost 5m in 2000, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Once a scheme is closed, benefits for members who were active at the closure date are typically based on their service to and salary at that date, and then increased in line with inflation.

But legal cases in 2014 and 2015 mean schemes previously thought to be able to break the salary link may face significant increases in their liabilities.

Click here to read the full blog post