Pensions Week articles from April 2006

Pensions Week archives from April 2006

DWP shows creativity in costing pension loss.
April 3, 2006

Regulator caves over time limits for cross-border regs.
April 3, 2006

News: Turner's NPSS takes Brown's fancy in search for reform.
April 3, 2006

News: National scheme fails to stimulate the masses.
April 3, 2006

News: Aegon plays down key losses.
April 3, 2006

News: Battle of the sexes over LGPS changes.
April 3, 2006

News: Newton adds to local mandates.
April 3, 2006

News: LPFA weighs up selection of CEOs as Scales quits.
April 3, 2006

News: UK's top 200 defined benefit schemes reduce deficits by 30% within a month.
April 3, 2006... The FRS17 pensions deficit has been reduced by around 30% to GBP51bn in a single month, the lowest level for almost two years. Aon Consulting research showed the deficit of the UK's 200 largest defined benefit schemes, including all those...

A-Day News: More delays for A-day changes.
April 3, 2006

A-Day News: Brown reverses decision on Sipp property assets.
April 3, 2006

A-Day News: Smaller firms will sink under NPSS pressure and increased regulation.
April 3, 2006

A-Day News: Lump sums look good but could impact on benefits.
April 3, 2006

News: Debate - Making a good start.
April 3, 2006

News: Asset managers get by on a wing and a prayer.
April 3, 2006

News: Companies fail to communicate changes.
April 3, 2006

News: Trustees need to diversify funds.
April 3, 2006

News: Black hole bluster rebuked as mere scare tactics.
April 3, 2006

News: Under 25s playing with fire says TUC.
April 3, 2006

News: Mind the retirement pay gap.
April 3, 2006

News: Notice Board - NAPF guide for pension trustees: Funding defined benefits - how does it work and how will it affect your scheme?
April 3, 2006

News: Ombudsman Watch.
April 3, 2006

News: PPI report backs bolder moves towards reform.
April 3, 2006

News: Latin markets expect to see fourth year of increasing equity outperformance.
April 3, 2006

Campaign for Pensions Justice: Reporting the reality behind the headlines.
April 3, 2006

Governance Watch: Rio Tinto digs itself out of a remuneration plan hole.
April 3, 2006

Spotlight: Changing the rules.
April 3, 2006

Opinion: Leader - The validity of consultation is open for debate.
April 3, 2006

Opinion: Personal View - The complexities of what should be a relatively simple regime.
April 3, 2006

Opinion: Inside View - A responsibility to blow the whistle on breach of duty.
April 3, 2006

People on the Move: Pearson brings equity experience to Standard Life.
April 3, 2006

People on the Move: Aon restructures its global team of senior strategists.
April 3, 2006... Byline: Matt Cameron Aon Consulting has reshuffled its executive pack with the appointment of Robert Middleton as chief executive, as well as naming Baljit Dail as global chief administrative officer. Middleton, who succeeds Ron Amy,...

People on the Move: Fornasari and Ellis show right currency for Goldman Sachs.
April 3, 2006

People on the Move: ABN Amro can't Waite to grow Middle East assets.
April 3, 2006

People on the Move: Irvine joins Henderson.
April 3, 2006

People on the Move: Mercer gives Green the go-ahead.
April 3, 2006

A-day adherence costs scheme giants millions.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Joanne McCulloch A-day has cost the UK's largest pension schemes around GBP1m each and failed to provide any real simplification, PW can reveal. The UK's largest private sector schemes - the GBP35bn BT Pension Scheme, GBP26.5bn...

ABN Amro actuarial Bales out to competitor Citigroup.
April 10, 2006... ABN Amro has witnessed a second key departure from its pensions team after making its head of actuarial redundant. Matthew Bale has resigned from his actuarial post at ABN Amro following Francis Fernandes' redundancy earlier this year (PW...

Brown quits HSBC for rivals LGIM.
April 10, 2006... The head of HSBC Investment's discretionary team has defected to rival firm Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). Craig Brown, who ran the discretionary team as part of HSBC's institutional business, left the firm last month. ...

Pensions Commission News: Critics savage Turner's risky reform of pensions landscape.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister Lord Turner's plans for a national savings scheme came under fire from the industry for failing to incentivise employers and risking the closure of generous occupational schemes. Consensus around long-term...

Pensions Commission News: Employers must be persuaded to contribute.
April 10, 2006... Government proposals for pension reform must incentivise employers to contribute to company schemes, a consultancy firm said. Employer contributions are vital in encouraging employees to join company pension schemes, according to Gary...

Pensions Commission News: NPSS could hit lower earners.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister Low to middle income earners will need to pay for costly advice to decide whether to join a National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) if the government does not adopt the Pensions Commission's proposals in full,...

Pensions Commission News: Treasury and Turner clash over cost.
April 10, 2006... The Treasury softened its position on the Pensions Commission's final proposals last week but remained concerned over the cost of state pension reform. Chancellor, Gordon Brown, expressed support for the principle of Lord Turner's National...

Pensions Commission News: Government can't cope with NPSS, industry warns.
April 10, 2006... Lord Turner's proposed National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) is "fundamentally flawed" and will fail if managed by the government, Alan Pickering warned. The 2002 simplification report author and senior consultant at Watson Wyatt, said...

News: Unison to strike if rule scrapped.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Joanne McCulloch Trade unions are threatening a further round of strikes during the Easter weekend unless the government agrees to negotiate the abolition of the 85- year rule. Following a series of heated discussions last...

News: Shepherd counts cost of providing benefits using JLT.
April 10, 2006... Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has been appointed by Shepherd Building Group to launch its flexible benefits scheme and provide pension administration services. Matthew Baker project co-ordinator, JLT benefit solutions, said the cost of...

News: Letters - Regulator follows DWP regulations.(Letter to the editor)
April 10, 2006... In your recent article `Regulator changes cause financial chaos' (March 27) there are several inaccuracies, and I wish to clarify the role of the regulator in this respect. The article states that "with just two days to go until stringent...

News: PPF's snapshot levy attacked.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister The government's pensions lifeboat is an unsustainable financial model whose snapshot levy calculation is based on pot luck and will force weak companies to the wall, consultants warned. The damning indictment...

News: Aon Consulting says bankruptcy could clear deficits.
April 10, 2006... Declaring bankruptcy has been touted by Aon Consulting as a radical strategy to eradicate occupational pension deficits. Companies in the UK are desperately looking to reduce their funding gaps and are considering following the example of...

News: Paymaster validates NPSS charges.
April 10, 2006... Annual management charges of 0.3% for the National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) are viable despite claims this is impossibly low, according to Paymaster. The outsourced administration provider, which is part of Hogg Robinson's Xafinity...

News: Mercer bags Co-op pension contract.
April 10, 2006... The Co-operative Group has appointed Mercer Human Resource Consulting to provide pension services. Mercer will offer consulting and actuarial advice to the trustees of the Co- operative Group pension scheme, which is replacing the three...

News: Regulations cripple potential of simplified system.
April 10, 2006... The pensions industry is grappling with an `obese' regulatory framework while the number of scheme members continues to decline, Pinsent Masons claimed. The law firm said government legislation and regulation has risen sharply since 2001,...

News: Sting in the Tale - System overloaded.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Steve Bee The Pensions Commission, when proposing the idea of a National Pension Savings Scheme, took the view that a compulsory contribution of 3% levied on the employers of those choosing to become members of such a scheme would...

News: Lib Dems urge compensation up to 90%.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister The government should compensate members of wound-up pension schemes in line with the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the Liberal Democrats' work and pensions spokesman said. David Laws urged the government to...

News: Market high could create 55% tax bill.
April 10, 2006... Thousands of scheme members could be hit with a 55% tax charge because of sharp increases in the equity market, Aon Consulting warned. The firm said defined contribution scheme members who had not expected to go above the GBP1.5m lifetime...

News: Trust and ethics should be key.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Gill Wadsworth Fund managers must take a more responsible approach to investment and the creation of client contracts, an asset manager warned. ABN Amro Asset Management (AAAM) has joined the growing number of fund managers...

News: Phased retirement not taken up.
April 10, 2006... Schemes are snubbing proposals to allow members to `phase in' their retirement from A-day, research by Mercer Human Resource Consulting has found. Its survey of more than 1,000 schemes revealed just 10% had changed their scheme rules to...

News: Simplification only benefits the rich, says Datamonitor.
April 10, 2006... A-day will not benefit the lower paid or reduce pension tax complexity, Datamonitor has warned. The independent market analyst said the regime, which came into play on April 6, was only attractive to the wealthy and did not fulfil its aim...

News: Salary sacrifice schemes save companies GBP100k a year in taxes.
April 10, 2006... Companies can save GBP100,000 a year per 1,000 pension scheme members through salary sacrifice schemes, Watson Wyatt claimed. The consultant said the schemes - which allow employers and employees to save on national insurance and tax costs...

News: NAPF Notice Board.
April 10, 2006... NAPF training courses Deciding DC - April 25, 2006 Deciding DC is for decision-makers who wish to understand defined contribution (DC) provision, trustees and those responsible for establishing and maintaining defined contribution. ...

News: Ombudsman Watch.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Norman Russell A new dawn This week's column is being composed on one of the last Northern Line trains that will trundle deep below London as the sun sets on the last day before A-day. The forecast for A-day night is frost,...

News: Residential opportunity.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Kalpana Limbachia Institutional investors should consider the residential market when investing in property, according to industry experts. Speaking at the alternative investment summit last week, Andrew Allen, head of research...

News: Altus passes e-filing tests.
April 10, 2006... The Altus Pensions Gateway has passed the validation tests set by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) making it the "first officially recognised solution" for e- filing, Altus told PW. Electronic filing of returns via the government gateway for...

Campaign for Pensions Justice: Reporting the reality behind the headlines.
April 10, 2006... Daughter of Dexion worker " This has affected the entire family and we all find it heartbreaking to see. Dad's health is deteriorating while he struggles to find work, and Mum worries terribly about the future, even though she tries to...

Governance Watch: St Modwen builds solid base for future governance.
April 10, 2006... St Modwen Properties will be holding its annual general meeting (AGM) on April 21, 2006 and the company has shown commitment to changing its corporate governance following shareholder engagement. During 2005, the company approached RREV to...

Profile: The LDI consultancy competition hots up.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Gill Wadsworth Much of the furore over liability-driven investment (LDI) has centred on investment managers and their solutions to the funding problems facing UK pension schemes. However, investment consultants are also seeing...

Opinion: Leader - Nothing is ever as simple as we hope it will be.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Gill Wadsworth It's no great surprise that pensions simplification seems to have hit the skids before it really got out of the starting blocks. The embarrassing delays, the confusion and the total lack of readiness were hardly...

Opinion: Personal View - Precise accuracy of long-term valuations is impossible to achieve.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Roger Booth Regular readers of my contributions to Pensions Week may recall that my last article focused on three main points. First, it highlighted that the present pension crisis is in effect caused by a group of predominantly...

Opinion: Inside View - Enhancing investments with a portable alpha strategy.
April 10, 2006... Investor interest in portable alpha has been rising rapidly, with recent reports indicating that a large percentage of institutional investors are, or will be, employing some type of portable alpha strategy in the future. What is portable...

People on the Move: Lane Clark & Peacock crows about partner hires.
April 10, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) has recruited Adam Poulson, Clive Wellsteed and Richard Pinder as partners, and Tony Bacon as a senior consultant in the research team. The three partners were appointed in a bid to...

People on the Move: Corley oversees European forum.
April 10, 2006... The Forum of European Asset Managers (FEAM) has appointed Elisabeth Corley as chairman. Corley, chief executive of Allianz Global Investors Europe, will succeed Nicholas Moreau, of Axa Investment Managers, in the role. She will be charged...

People on the Move: Axa boosts Japan team with Hardie.
April 10, 2006... Axa Framlington has strengthened its Japan team with the appointment of Chisako Hardie as fund manager, Japanese desk. Hardie, a chartered member of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan, will join Axa from Scottish Widows Investment...

People on the Move: Clay takes sales experience from Pandi over to Xafinity.
April 10, 2006... Pensions software and consulting company Xafinity has appointed Greg Clay as marketing and sales director. Clay will be responsible for the leadership and cohesion of marketing and sales activities across Xafinity, with a particular focus...

ABN Amro reverses its redundancy claim.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Gill Wadsworth ABN Amro has been forced to retract its claims that the bank's head of actuarial was made redundant, in an embarrassing communications farce. The international investment bank, which boasts a 10-strong in-house...

Companies plan to ditch DB risk from balance sheets.
April 17, 2006... Former Prudential life and pensions boss Mark Wood has predicted it will become the norm for companies to transfer defined benefit (DB) schemes off their balance sheets in the next three to five years. And if accounting standard FRS 17 is...

News: Industry hopes FSA regulations will lessen fund transfer delays.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Joe McGrath Leading industry figures are anticipating the introduction of Financial Services Authority (FSA) legislation to stamp out fund transfer delays between pension providers. Bosses at the City watchdog are consulting...

News: Balance shifts between state and private pension incomes.
April 17, 2006... Private pension schemes have outperformed state pensions by 81%, according to research by Clerical Medical. Researchers at the HBOS-owned pensions specialist found state pension income has increased by 40% since 1979, while income from...

News: Arriva rings up final salary deal.
April 17, 2006... Bus workers for transport giant Arriva have secured their final salary pensions following an ongoing campaign by the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G). After negotiations between bosses and the unions, it was agreed workers with...

News: Government faces legal action.
April 17, 2006... Byline: Daniel McAllister The government will face a barrage of legal action in the UK and European courts in a last ditch attempt by interest groups and unions to force it to compensate the lost pensions of 125,000 people. Labour's...

News: NAPF chairman condemns NPSS.
April 17, 2006... The National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) is a "recipe for disaster" and poses a huge risk to the government, Robin Ellison claimed. The National Association of Pension Funds' (NAPF) chairman said the scheme - a key Pensions Commission...

News: BlueBay increases assets with GBP195m mandate success.
April 17, 2006... Barclays UK Pension Fund has appointed specialist fixed-income manager BlueBay Asset Management to handle a GBP195m emerging market debt mandate. Fahim Imam-Sadeque, institutional investment adviser at Bluebay, said the win is indicative...

News: Merseyside fund employs bFinance and Inalytics.
April 17, 2006... Investment consultants bFinance and performance measurers Inalytics have been hired by a multi-billion pound local authority scheme. The GBP2.4bn Merseyside pension fund will use bFinance to provide manager selection services - a decision...

News: Letters.(Letter to the editor)
April 17, 2006... DWP fails to reveal pension risk There is not one word in these DWP/DSS leaflets about the risk that members of final salary schemes could face if their scheme wound up. There is no mention that members may not get their full pension on...

News: ABN Amro: Apology.
April 17, 2006... "Further to an article [ABN Amro actuarial Bales out to competitor Citigroup] appearing in Pensions Week (PW 10.04.06), we [ABN Amro] unreservedly apologise for any damage or injury caused to Francis Fernandes' professional reputation on...