Editorial: August is drawing to a close, and here at Pensions Expert we’re gearing up to return to our normal print schedule. We’ll be back in print from September 5, and we won’t be short of things to write about.
Traditionally the summer months are known as 'silly season' in the media, a time when headlines get a bit more frivolous and more serious reporting falls by the wayside. (If you need an example of silly season in action, you need look no further than this week’s 'traingate' story about Jeremy Corbyn).
However, the stories have never been so plentiful for the pensions industry. Brexit has set off an avalanche in pension liabilities, and big questions loom over the ongoing relationship the UK will have with the EU, and the effect on both the economic environment and pensions regulation.
Just this week we’ve seen yet more schemes taking action to address their pension deficits, something that is likely to take a number of forms as the gap between the retail price index and consumer price index stretches ever wider.
Looking beyond this week, we’re still waiting to see what sort of regulation we can expect for the mastertrust market, as announced in the Queen’s speech, and what form proposals from the Work and Pensions Committee might take to deal with the growing problem of defined benefit deficits. We are also waiting to see exactly what designs our chancellor and pensions ministers have in mind for the industry.
These more technical points combined with the big-name stories of BHS and British Steel can more or less guarantee pensions will remain firmly fixed at the top of the news agenda for the foreseeable future.
The last thing sponsors and trustees of pension schemes need is yet more complicated factors to consider in their decisions, but they now face the prospect of trial by media in a way they did not before.
They need to be careful how they navigate the challenges ahead. The world, more than ever, is watching.
