Pensions Week articles from December 2005

Pensions Week archives from December 2005

News: Don't pick and choose, Turner tells ministers.
December 5, 2005... If the government merely cherry-picks the Pensions Commissions' proposals for reform then a pensions crisis will be inevitable, warned Adair Turner. In an interview with PW, the chairman of the Pensions Commission - whose report last week...

News: Government reinstates 85-year rule for public sector workers to deter strike action.
December 5, 2005... The government is hoping to divert crippling strike action from public sector workers by reinstating the 85-year rule for Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) members. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) said it would not...

Pensions Commission News: Report says flat-rate citizen's pension is too expensive.
December 5, 2005... A flat-rate citizen's pension that scraps the existing two-tier state system has been rejected by the Pensions Commission as too expensive. Chairman of the commission, Adair Turner, told PW, that a radical introduction of a simple...

Pensions Commission News: NAPF urges Hutton to keep eye on DB schemes.
December 5, 2005... The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has staged talks with work and pensions secretary John Hutton to ensure the government doesn't lose sight of protecting defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in the wake of the Turner report. ...

Pensions Commission News: Industry could lose 50,000 jobs under national savings scheme.
December 5, 2005... The Pensions Commission's proposal for a national savings scheme could slash 50,000 jobs and mean a 30% cut in revenue, for the life and pensions industry. John Connolly, UK chief executive of Deloitte & Touche, warned Turner's proposed...

Pensions Commission News: Turner defends NPSS attack.
December 5, 2005... A national savings scheme auto-enrolling companies into pension provision is in danger of causing the closure of generous occupational plans and will further drive the irreversible trend of rising individual investment risk, Adair Turner told...

Pensions Commission News: Unions join hands to support Turner's recommendations.
December 5, 2005... Unions have warned government not to avoid the tough decisions raised by the Turner Commission and not to be swayed by those opposed to a fair pensions settlement. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), Unison and the Transport and General...

Pensions Commission News: NPSS will repeat folly of stakeholder pension schemes.
December 5, 2005... The Pensions Commission's plans to introduce a national savings scheme will threaten the pensions of millions of people, warned Alexander Forbes Financial Services (AFFS). Robert Macgregor, corporate development director at AFFS, argued...

Pensions Commission News: Opposition blasts government division.
December 5, 2005... The government has been slammed by opposition parties for its increasingly divisive pension policy, following the Pensions Commission's report last week. The government's apparently duplicitous approach to pension policy which has driven a...

News: Threadneedle loses mandate.
December 5, 2005... Threadneedle Investments' equity offering suffered another blow last week after Welsh council Torfaen terminated a GBP320m UK equity mandate. Assistant finance director Graeme Russell cited underperformance as one of the main reasons...

News: Hornbuckle Mitchell offers white label Sipp service to IFAs.
December 5, 2005... Hornbuckle Mitchell has launched a service allowing independent financial advisers (IFAs) to white label the firm's flagship self-invested personal pension (Sipp) while still undertaking all administration services. Hornbuckle Mitchell,...

News: Fund managers show outsourcing concerns.
December 5, 2005... Fund managers have questioned the efficacy of outsourcing, according to a survey carried out by Investit Intelligence. Following the failure of three major outsourcing contracts this year, Investit's survey of 19 investment managers...

News: Early retirees fear cuts in pensions under PPF rules.
December 5, 2005... Early retirees from the Turner & Newall (T&N) pension scheme face huge cuts to their pensions if the scheme enters the assessment period for the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF). Pensions Week understands that one-fifth of the scheme's 5,000...

News: Bromley tests targeted returns.
December 5, 2005... The London Borough of Bromley's GBP250m pension fund is set to test the waters of targeted returns with a tender for a GBP40m mandate. Mike Pitt, assistant director of resources for the council, said the decision had come at the end of a...

News: Schroders sets up global property securities fund with EII.
December 5, 2005... Schroders has joined forces with European Investors Incorporated (EII) to set up a global property securities fund. It will invest in listed property companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) on a globally diversified basis. ...

News: Debate - Let the battle begin.
December 5, 2005... The Turner report is finally out and, at the very least, has created much- needed national publicity for pensions and sparked the beginning of an historic debate which will affect the future of just about everyone. For this, we must be...

News: PPF levy could force firms out of the UK.
December 5, 2005... Beset by delays the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has run into further controversy following food giant Nestle's warning that the levy system could force it out of the UK. In a statement Nestle told PW: "It is our belief that if UK labour...

News: Standard Life launches GSipp for A-day.
December 5, 2005... Standard Life is set to take advantage of the expected A-day changes with the launch of a group self-invested personal pension (GSipp). The firm is the first of the major insurers to launch a product many expect to wholly replace group...

News: Equal rights for gay couples.
December 5, 2005... Gay couples are set to receive the same rights as married couples once the Civil Partnership Act 2004 comes into force. However, the move towards equality could create extra costs for pension schemes that must now provide the same benefits...

News: Complex calculations causing delay in PPF levy response.
December 5, 2005... The government's pension lifeboat is battling against stormy waters following its decision to delay publication of the risk-based levy calculations. The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) defended the delay to its response to the July...

News: Ombudsman watch.
December 5, 2005... The Turner wagon Lord Turner's second report weighed in on the due date at a healthy 6lbs 5ozs. Accordingly, it deserved something a little more substantial than the Northern line for its review in this column. Fortunately, on the day the...

News: NAPF notice board.
December 5, 2005... NAPF seminar - The Pensions Commission: what does it mean for workplace pensions? Tuesday 10 January 2006 NAPF, NIOC House, London A leading spokesperson from the Pensions Commission will join NAPF's chief executive Christine...

Governance update: Pre-AGM governance concerns at MJ Gleeson.
December 5, 2005... The construction company, MJ Gleeson, will be holding its annual general meeting on 11 January 2006 and RREV is highlighting some corporate governance concerns relating to its remuneration policy and the composition of two of its board...

Spotlight: Turner: in plain English.
December 5, 2005... - The National Pensions Saving Scheme Turner rejects the notion that reform of the state pension is sufficient to remove barriers to adequate pension provision. Instead Turner wants to create a National Pensions Savings Scheme (NPSS)...

Opinion: Leader - Media madness can do more harm than good.
December 5, 2005... Sensationalist and scaremongering headlines have dogged Adair Turner since his initial Pensions Commission report in October last year and following the release of his final proposals last week, the hacks have gone to town whipping up a frenzy...

Opinion: Personal view - Boutique fund managers offer local authorities a specialist service.
December 5, 2005... In recent years, local authorities have found themselves in a position to consider a far wider range of fund management providers than in the past. This is partly a consequence of the market's fragmentation during the move from balanced to...

Opinion: Inside view - Securitised market attracting attention from investors.
December 5, 2005... The institutional fixed income market in the UK has developed rapidly in recent years. Just a few years ago pension funds invested their fixed income assets almost exclusively in gilts. Then came the explosion in corporate debt, and the gradual...

Special Focus: Content.
December 5, 2005... The pension fund industry may be notoriously slow to respond to change, but there's nothing like a cavernous funding gap to kick people into life. With pension fund deficits dwarfing many firms' market capitalisations, finance directors...

Special Focus: The rise and rise of inflation-linbked swaps.
December 5, 2005... That derivatives offer exciting opportunities to reduce risk in an investment portfolio has been the topic of a hundred pension seminars. Over the last year, however, there has been a marked shift from the discussion stage to implementation, as...

Special focus: Is portable alpha investing the answer for pension funds?
December 5, 2005... "My sense is that the world is pregnant for a revolution in investment management. It feels like 1935, when people knew that the current macroeconomic thinking didn't work and then Keynes published his General Theory. The separation of alpha...

Special focus: Bridging the asset/liability gap.
December 5, 2005... As a result of the sharp correction in equity markets, regulatory pressures and the adverse short-term correlation between shares and bonds, pension funds have had to seek new sources of returns. They have also had to reconsider how best to...

Special focus: Company profile - Societe Generale.(Company Profile)
December 5, 2005... Background Societe Generale is one of the leading financial services groups in the eurozone and employs 93,000 people worldwide. Our business consists of retail banking and financial services, global investment management and services, and...

Pensions and simplification update: December 2005.
December 5, 2005... Regulations: (Draft) The Registered Pension Schemes (Prescribed Manner of Determining Amount of Annuities) Regulations 2005 Description: Regulations setting out the manner in which the amount of increase or decrease in the annuity paid...

People on the move: Darmanin crosses the pond to take charge in Europe.
December 5, 2005... The Bank of New York has appointed Robert Darmanin as head of European custody and pensions. Darmanin moves to his new role from the bank's investment management banking division based in New York, where he headed up corporate finance...

People on the move: Montagu takes experience to Xafinity and beyond.
December 5, 2005... Benefits and consulting company Xafinity has appointed former Inland Revenue chairman Nicholas Montagu as a non-executive director. Montagu, aged 61, served as chairman of the Inland Revenue from 1997-2004, acquiring responsibility for...

People on the move: Midas Capital opts for Collins as NED.
December 5, 2005... Multi-asset fund management business Midas Capital has appointed Adrian Collins to its board as a non-executive director. Collins is currently an executive director of Strand Partners. His career in the City spans 30 years, during which he...

People on the move: Melville-Ross succeeds Reid.
December 5, 2005... The mutual life and pension company Royal London has appointed Tim Melville- Ross as chairman from 1 January 2006 following the retirement of Hubert Reid at the end of the year. Melville-Ross, 61, joined the Royal London board in June 1999...

People on the move: SWIP go for Gillard to drive growth.
December 5, 2005... Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has appointed Annabel Gillard as business development director of its UK institutional team. Gillard will be based in London and report directly to Ominder Dhillon, head of UK institutional...

People on the move: ABN Amro brings in Taylor-Gee to enrich SRI team.
December 5, 2005... ABN Amro Asset Management has boosted its socially responsible investment (SRI) team with the appointment of Gemma Taylor-Gee as an SRI engagement specialist. Based in London, Taylor-Gee will be responsible for implementing the engagement...

News Just In...: No legal requirement for trustees to get maximum return on investment.
December 5, 2005... Pension funds are avoiding social and ethical investments in the mistaken belief that they are required by law to maximise investment returns to their scheme members. According to a report prepared by law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus...

News Just In...: DP World to plug P&O GBP200m fund deficit.
December 5, 2005... Dubai Ports World (DP World) has proposed plugging P&O's GBP200m pension fund deficit with a GBP125m cash injection as part of its takeover proposal for the British shipping group. The move forms part of a GBP3bn bid by the Middle Eastern...

Company schemes reject Turner's NPSS.
December 12, 2005... Occupational pension scheme managers are strongly against the proposed National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS), according to a Pensions Week poll on the recommendations of the Pensions Commission's report. Only 20% of scheme managers...

Swedish system snubbed due to tax rise implications.
December 12, 2005... The Pensions Commission's proposals for state pension reform recognise that higher taxes needed for a proper earnings-related pension are unacceptable in the UK. Chairman of the commission, Adair Turner, praised the Swedish pension...

Hammond grabs Tory pension post.
December 12, 2005... Fell-walking enthusiast Philip Hammond is the third Tory in a year to take up the mantle of shadow work and pensions minister. Following the ascent of David Cameron to leader of the Conservative party, Hammond has replaced Malcolm Rifkind...

News: Turner cautions huge demand for annuities will lower returns.
December 12, 2005... A huge increase in future demand for annuities predicted by the Pensions Commission's report could force people to annuitise later than planned to protect the value of their investments. Adair Turner, chairman of the Pensions Commission,...

News: LGPS must meet standards.
December 12, 2005... Public sector pension schemes will be expected to meet the same standards of corporate governance as their private sector counterparts by April next year. Under major changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), each sponsoring...

News: ABI and EEF show support for Turner.
December 12, 2005... The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) teamed up to support the Pensions Commission's proposals for auto-enrolment. Stephen Haddrill, director-general of the ABI, and Martin Temple,...

Pensions Commission News: Don't reinvent the wheel, ABI urges.
December 12, 2005... Adair Turner's proposals for auto- enrolment should be run by the financial services industry not a risky state quango, warned an industry body. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has spearheaded an industry attack on the Pensions...

Pensions Commission News: Study paints bleak picture of savings.
December 12, 2005... More than a third of Britain's working population is saving nothing for retirement, an industry survey revealed. A study by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) showed 8.3 million people are not saving anything for when they retire and...

Pensions Commission News: Timms challenges industry to find alternative to NPSS.
December 12, 2005... The government has spoken out in favour of Turner's National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) but has challenged the financial services industry to come up with a viable alternative. Pensions reform minister, Stephen Timms, has already set out...

Pensions Commission News: Compulsion would be a step too far, says CBI.
December 12, 2005... Compulsory employer contributions are the sting in the tail of the Pensions Commission's final report, warned the confederation of British Industry (CBI). Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, said commission chairman, Adair Turner's...

News: Investors can get good GPP deals, says Dawson.
December 12, 2005... Pricing structures in the group pensions market are suicidal for providers but investors should take advantage of the deals on offer, according to a UK pensions consultancy. Gissings deputy managing director Andrew Dawson said competition...

News: High Court gives go-ahead for claim against Bradstock.
December 12, 2005... The High Court has given leave for a member of the Bradstock pension scheme to pursue a maladministration claim against Bradstock Group with the pensions ombudsman. It is likely that the decision means that Bradstock's liquidator, Ernst &...

News: HBOS promises to plug oe1.8bn pension deficit.
December 12, 2005... Christmas arrived early last week for members of the HBOS pension scheme after the sponsoring company announced it would plug the fund's GBP1.8bn pension deficit within 10 years. As part of a raft of fiscal spring-cleaning measures, HBOS...

News: Don't miss this week's Trustee Masterclass.
December 12, 2005... This week's issue of PW comes with the latest educational card for pension scheme trustees, as part of the Trustee Masterclass joint initiative between PW and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM). The Trustee Masterclass aims to help UK...

News: SRI loses favour at Lancashire as oe50m mandate disappoints.
December 12, 2005... Socially responsible investing (SRI) has tumbled even further from pension fund favour following Lancashire County Council's termination of a GBP50m SRI mandate with Henderson Global Investors. Don Yates, chairman of the council's pension...

News: 47 managers bid for three Redbridge mandates.
December 12, 2005... The London Borough of Redbridge pension fund is set to award three investment mandates worth up to GBP235m by next April. The council's pension fund is seeking fund managers to oversee core global equity, bond and high alpha/unconstrained...

News: Move to bonds and alternatives will continue.
December 12, 2005... Insurance companies will continue to move their investment portfolios from equities to bonds and alternative assets, according to the head of a major insurance company. Winterthur Group chief executive officer Leonard Fischer said...

News: Another local authority win for Standard Life.
December 12, 2005... Buckinghamshire County Council has finished its three-year process of reorganising the allocation of its GBP874m pension fund with the award of a GBP76m mandate to Standard Life Investments. Standard Life will manage a segregated high alpha...

Sting in the tale: Backed by a promise.
December 12, 2005... The Pensions Commission's report commented on contracting out of the state second pension scheme (S2P) and about contracting out in general. Contracting out has been a feature of UK state pensions since 1961. That was when a second,...

News: Unions stand firm over retention of 85-year rule.
December 12, 2005... Trade unions have refused to give up their fight for the retention of the 85- year rule for local government pension scheme (LGPS) members despite government resolve to remove the controversial law. Unison, the public sector union, and the...

News: Ombudsman defends court involvement.
December 12, 2005... The pensions ombudsman has denied it will return to the bad old days of disputes and conflict with the courts despite recent criticism of the judiciary's intervention in pensions cases. Ombudsman David Laverick said he welcomed the High...

Sipp News: Brown's U-turn stirs up trouble.
December 12, 2005... The government's decision to clamp down on eligible self-invested personal pension (Sipp) investments has met with a mixed response, with some firms claiming it has averted another mis-selling scandal. The move, announced last week as part...

Sipp News: Further changes expected.
December 12, 2005... The pensions industry should expect further changes to the tax simplification legislation following the Treasury's about face on tax breaks for self- invested personal pensions (Sipps). According to consultant Hymans Robertson, chancellor...

Sipp News: Simplification now takes a back seat.
December 12, 2005... The original aims of pensions simplification have now been lost following the chancellor's reversal on residential property, according to one of the leading spokesmen for self-invested personal pensions (Sipps). John Bradley, chairman of...

Sipp News: Focus switched to private equities for Sipp investors.
December 12, 2005... Interest in private equity funds could boom as investors seek new homes for their pension assets in the wake of the government's volte-face on self- invested personal pension (Sipp) tax breaks. According to private investor network, Hotbed,...

Sipp News: Loss of tax breaks will not prevent savings changes.
December 12, 2005... The chancellor's change of heart on tax breaks for self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) does not prohibit significant change for the savings vehicle, a benefits consultant claimed. EBS Management, the consulting arm of stockbrokers...

News: Employers review pay for NEDs after agency analysis.
December 12, 2005... Non-executive directors are coming under increasing pressure following scrutiny from corporate governance agencies with more than 40% of employers reviewing non-exec pay this year. According to a Watson Wyatt survey, while non-executive...

News: BlueBay unveils emerging market fund against index.
December 12, 2005... London-based specialist fixed income manager BlueBay has launched an emerging market fund to take advantage of JPMorgan's latest index. The Emerging Market Local Currency fund will be bench-marked against JPMorgan's new government bond...

News: MSCI Barra offers BRIC equity index.
December 12, 2005... Index provider MSCI Barra has launched the MSCI BRIC equity index that combines the equity indices of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Each market is represented on a market capitalisation basis, and the new index sits alongside the firm's...

News: IMS shows competitive spirit.
December 12, 2005... Investment Manager Selection (IMS) has accused its multi-manager competitors of lacking quality and claimed that its takeover of MM Asset Management will give the market much needed competition. Anthony John, IMS managing director, told PW...

News: Managers cut broker business.
December 12, 2005... Poor operational performance has driven over 50% of investment managers to reduce their broker business in the last 12 months, according to a City market intelligence firm. Z/Yen found investment managers' demands for better confirmation...

News: Hermes aims for outsourcing success with BNY.
December 12, 2005... In a move set against the high-profile failure of three outsourcing deals, Hermes Pensions Management has struck a back office deal with the Bank of New York (BNY). The GBP60bn independent asset manager has outsourced its investment...

News: CSAM tackles UK fund demand.
December 12, 2005... Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has revamped its institutional fund offering with the launch of two investment vehicles and a string of new hires. The asset manager has developed a sterling denominated commodity fund and a US dollar...

News: SWIP backs the City for property investment returns.
December 12, 2005... City of London property prices are expected to produce the best investment returns in the property sector, according to Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP). SWIP said it expected investors in City offices to reap above average...

News: NAPF Notice Board.
December 12, 2005... Working in partnership with NAPF Representing over 800 pension schemes on behalf of 10 million working people and five million pensioners, with assets worth around GBP800billion, the NAPF is an extremely powerful voice among policymakers...

Ombudsman Watch.
December 12, 2005... Down South This week's column is both a first and a last. It is a first, because it is the first ombudsman watch to attempt (I emphasise the word 'attempt') to analyse a Scottish pension case. It is also the last, at least until the New...

Governance Update: Lack of board balance at McCarthy and Stone.
December 12, 2005... McCarthy and Stone is holding its annual general meeting on 19 December 2005 and despite recent significant improvements in the company's corporate governance profile, certain areas of concern still remain. Howard Phillips was appointed chief...

McAllister Investigates: The Turner Report: Turner stands his ground and comes out fighting.
December 12, 2005... Turner's iron triangle of choices remains - working longer, saving more, increasing taxes - but there's another triangle which sees the government in one corner, the pensions industry in the other and Turner at the apex. The Pensions...

Opinion: Leader - Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
December 12, 2005... Just when you were looking forward to decanting your prized collection of Chateau Mouton Rothschild into your pension fund, the retirement planner's friend chancellor Gordon Brown has decided that's not such a good idea after all. Grand...

Opinion: Personal View - Baring its teeth and increasing target funding levels.
December 12, 2005... In October the Pensions Regulator issued an important consultation document on funding defined benefit (DB) pensions. So now we know how the regulator intends to interpret prudence. Ahead of the consultation document, I wrote of the need to...

Opinion: Inside View - Deals and decisions for local government schemes.
December 12, 2005... The past 12 months have been a particularly turbulent period for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Amendments to the scheme's early retirement benefits have been announced, made and then immediately revoked. After weeks of discussion...

Special Focus: Technology challenge - Intro.
December 12, 2005... The Finance Act 2004 has been widely welcomed by the pensions industry but despite the broad support for the act's simplification measures, confusion and frustration still remain. Gordon Brown's pre-budget report threw expectations for...

Special Focus: Technology challenge - Meeting the technology challenge.
December 12, 2005... A-day is on everyone's lips as the race for pension schemes and their technology providers to have appropriate software systems in place in time for the start of the new simplified environment gathers momentum. "There will be opportunities...