All Opinion articles – Page 84
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Opinion
Are you letting silos dominate your investment portfolio?
Any other business: Traders in the City’s investment banks sit for hours executing fixed income or equity trades but will rarely cross the floor to speak to the desk of another asset class.
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Opinion
Six ways to rethink your derisking plan in a volatile world
Around 40 years ago we experienced the 1970s oil shock, with rising oil prices, rising inflation and rising interest rates.
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Opinion
Decoding HMRC's reading of the VAT verdict
HM Revenue & Customs has now published its eagerly awaited guidance on VAT and pension schemes, following the recent European Court of Justice cases.
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OpinionEditorial: Everything can be improved
This week we lead with two stories on communication, and how to learn when things don’t go so well.
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Opinion
Regulator: Scammers continue to evolve, we will too
As we highlighted in last summer's cross-government campaign, scheme members are being ripped off and face losing all or most of their savings as a result of scams that promise instant cash and high returns on investments.
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Opinion
Why trustees will be spending more time on PPF certification, not less
It was no surprise the Pensions Regulator’s latest defined benefit code recognised the potential value to both schemes and sponsors of contingent assets where trustees agree "to accept more risk than can be supported by their available employer covenant”.
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Opinion
Communicating difficult benefit changes: a scheme guide
Communicating difficult messages on benefit changes is not easy. The likelihood is that some or all staff are going to suffer some consequence – with the potential knock-on impact of negative feedback, disengagement, loss of productivity or retention issues.
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Opinion
Why annuities still play a crucial role in the post-Budget landscape
After the Budget, a number of commentators lined up to proclaim the changes would mean the end of the humble annuity – and there is no doubt annuities have had a bashing over the past few years.
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Opinion
Class actions are on the rise. Should trustees pick up their cudgels?
Almost from nowhere, pension managers and investment committees are being bombarded with class actions. But how do you manage these, and what are trustees’ duties in these cases?
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Opinion
What Malcolm in the Middle says about our retirement prospects
We've been talking about it for nigh on a year now, but a report released by the National Association of Pension Funds today paints a detailed portrait of the decision-making paralysis facing many in the 50-70 age group at retirement.
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Opinion
Does Saudi Arabia's succession planning put your scheme to shame?
Industry experts have warned that schemes are not putting enough thought into what would happen should they need to replace their trustee chair or pension director, leaving themselves open to administrative risk.
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OpinionEditorial: Making yourself heard
Once again, the country’s leading pension funds have stood up for responsible investment, and pressure is building on asset managers to be more forthcoming in their reporting on the matter.
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Opinion
Draghi has unleashed the force: what will it mean for schemes?
The unleashing of €60bn (£45bn) a month of quantitative easing by the European Central Bank last week could mark trouble ahead for UK pension schemes, as greater demand for gilts pushes yields ever lower and liabilities higher.
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Opinion
How your scheme can benefit from the VAT changes
With some hard work and careful planning, schemes could recoup sizeable rebates as a result of pension tax changes.
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Opinion
How smaller schemes can optimise their investment portfolios
Designing an optimal investment portfolio for a small defined benefit scheme is a real challenge because often the theory and the practice do not go hand in hand.
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Opinion
McClymont: Why IGCs are missing the I and G
There is nothing more important than good governance to ensure value-for-money workplace pensions. Without robust governance in the interest of savers, the success of auto-enrolment is not a sure thing.
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Opinion
Will risk-sharing schemes ever take off in the UK?
The current pension schemes bill introduces a new shared-risk arrangement, in which at least some of the benefits can be provided through collective defined contribution plans. But what would the real-world application mean in the UK pensions market?
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Opinion
Eight ways to manage the volatility of your EM exposure
Not all investors have the risk appetite for investing in emerging market equities. But there are a number of risk-mitigating ways to access the asset class, some of which are relatively easy to implement.
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Opinion
How to battle pensions liberation in the new DC environment
Liberation scams are a growing tumour on the pensions industry, offering scheme members access to their money early at the cost of large swaths of their pension pot, or possibly the lot.
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Opinion
Webb: Why a soft launch is right for automatic transfers
It is sometimes claimed that all the necessary legislation to deliver a successful programme of auto-enrolment was passed by the previous government. Under this version of history, all the coalition had to do was sit and watch its success.