All articles by Stephanie Hawthorne
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NewsFCA's consumer duty reforms will shake up the pensions industry
Are companies ready for the biggest reform in financial services since 2012?
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FeaturesWill DC consolidation present master trusts with crock of gold?
Within a decade, some 15 or more master trusts will have disappeared. Today, 36 players jockey for pole position. What will this huge transition mean for trustees, sponsors, and members, asks Stephane Hawthorne?
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FeaturesWhy do savers continue to misunderstand their pensions?
Analysis: The pensions industry spends extensively on member communications, but 48 per cent of employees do not know how much their employer is paying into their pension, according to a survey by The People’s Pension.
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NewsOmbudsman criticises Railways scheme for maladministration
The Pensions Ombudsman has partly upheld a complaint by a member of the Railways Pension Scheme against its trustee and administrator, RPMI, after finding maladministration in the scheme’s decision to suspend a member’s pension between July and December 2018.
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NewsExperian revamps pension comms as over-50s face pandemic sting
As the financial crisis resulting from the pandemic has made many savers rethink their attitude towards pension savings, Experian has revamped its communications to scheme members in a bid to help them avoid “costly mistakes”.
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NewsGovt plans green bonds issue, but should schemes take the plunge?
The UK government has an ambitious climate and environmental agenda and is set to issue its first green gilt in September 2021, with at least one more issue before the end of the year. Green gilts to the value of £15bn will be issued in the 2021-22 financial year.
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NewsCould FSCS cope with a major bulk annuity provider default?
As sponsors offload their pension schemes to insurers, industry experts fear that an ever-increasing concentration of assets with a small group of players could lead to compensation schemes being overwhelmed in a major downturn.
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Experts dismiss national pension fund proposal
Analysis: Experts have largely poured scorn on a highly controversial proposal to create a gigantic national sovereign fund by merging public schemes and then mopping up private plans as well.
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NewsLPPA embarks on data journey and reaps rewards of digital tracing
Case study: A renewed effort to ramp up digital tracing and mortality screening has been a boon to the Local Pensions Partnership Administration, with the exercise having the potential to cut costs, save time and improve actuarial valuations.
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NewsDB schemes can be severely impacted by Libor closure
The end of the London interbank offered rate at the end of this year is expected to have huge consequences for defined benefit schemes, which historically have been using it for different asset class investments and even for managers’ benchmarks.
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NewsMinnows make land grab from Big Four as audit fees set to rise
The cosy oligarchy of the Big Four accounting firms — PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG — is set to be shaken up in 2021 as mid-tier companies eye their bread-and-butter work of pension scheme auditing.
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NewsEngineering group speeds up derisking as market nears £30bn
At the tail end of what has been the second biggest year ever for derisking transactions, engineering services group Renew Holdings completed a £110m buy-in with Rothesay Life for its Lovell Pension Scheme.
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Trustees warned not to miss CMA’s self-certification January deadline
Fears are mounting that Christmas and remote working may cause trustees to miss a vital deadline in January to comply with new Competition and Markets Authority rules.
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Features
Tyrwhitt Drake takes the reins as CEO at Pensions for Purpose
Charlotte Tyrwhitt Drake is poised to take over as chief executive of Pensions for Purpose in January, after joining as a director in July 2020 from Kempen Capital Management.
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TPS phased withdrawal plan arrives too late for hundreds of schools
Teachers’ organisations and pension professionals have given a lukewarm welcome to the Department for Education’s proposal to allow independent schools to retain Teachers’ Pension Scheme membership for existing staff, while at the same time offering private plans for new staff.
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Pension professionals demand pause to TPR’s tough stance on funding
The UK could face a tidal wave of insolvencies and job losses in the coming winter months. With this bleak prospect looming, pension professionals are calling for a more pragmatic approach from the Pensions Regulator on scheme funding.
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Features
Professional trustees: ‘quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’
Analysis: With consolidation now the name of the game in the small world of pensions, trustee conflicts of interest could harm millions of pension scheme members’ prospects, as schemes eye superfunds and master trusts with vast sums at stake in fees.
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Majority of DB schemes’ recovery plans on track before Covid
Data crunch: Only a third of defined benefit schemes extended their recovery plan end date in 2019, but pandemic storms are set to see pension funds entering choppy waters, with insolvency looming for some sponsors and trustees being asked to make tough decisions.
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DWP still keeping millions in the dark over loss of GMP top ups
Millions of people are still unaware of the loss of a valuable indexed guaranteed minimum pension benefit to their state pension since 2016, as the Department for Work and Pensions still has not complied with a Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman ruling to inform the public of this deprivation.
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Doctors’ admin saga rumbles on as compensation issued
Doctors are up in arms over a long history of serious pensions administration shortcomings in the lumbering NHS Pension Scheme, some of which are still surfacing.