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Pensions Week articles from February 2006

11,974 total articles

A business journal of news and developments in the occupational pensions industry in the UK. Provides updates on people, companies, new mandate wins and losses, company moves and new business opportunities..

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Pensions Week archives from February 2006

Apax faces inquiry into BUSM scheme conduct.
February 6, 2006... The government is facing pressure to open an inquiry into the collapse of two British United Shoe Machinery (BUSM) pension schemes run by private equity firm Apax. The call for the inquiry into the wind-up of the USM Texon plan and the...

Treasury snubs victims of scheme wind-up fiasco.
February 6, 2006... The Treasury has refused to meet representatives of pension scheme members who lost their lifetime retirement savings when their companies wound up their occupational pensions schemes, despite holding the key to adequate compensation. At a...

News: Schemes locked in PPF levy investment merry-go-round.
February 6, 2006... The government's pensions lifeboat is causing pensions deficits to spiral as schemes scramble for long-dated gilts in a bid to reduce their imminent levy, industry insiders warned. The Pension Protection Fund's (PPF) risk-based levy, which...

News: Park Row goes online with annuity advice.
February 6, 2006... Financial advice firm Park Row is setting up an annuity advice operation for occupational pension scheme members and individuals buying annuities. The firm is to be called Park Row Annuity Bureau and will be based in Basingstoke. It will...

News: Brown must disclose baseline.
February 6, 2006... The government must come clean on its spending assumptions for pensions or a long-term consensus is impossible, the shadow work and pensions secretary told PW. Philip Hammond argued that chancellor Gordon Brown must reveal the baseline for...

News: Credit Agricole expands range with sub-funds.
February 6, 2006... Credit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM) has enlarged its absolute return range by launching three sub-funds, and is developing a liability-driven investment (LDI) fund aimed specifically at UK pension scheme investment. The three...

News: National Health Service updates pension software.
February 6, 2006... The National Health Service Pensions Agency (NHSPA) has implemented Claybrook's software as part of a three-year pensions modernisation programme that will see a new scheme introduced. Using software provided by pensions administrator...

News in brief: Capita wins waltham forest contract.
February 6, 2006... The London Borough of Waltham Forest pension scheme has appointed Capita Hartshead as its scheme administrator on a three-year contract following a competitive tender. The scheme, part of the local government pension scheme, has previously...

News in brief: Tomkins pass scheme admin to buck.
February 6, 2006... Engineering firm Tomkins has appointed Buck Consultants to provide administration and secretarial services to six pension schemes with over 4,000 members and assets of more than GBP170m. Tomkins chairman of trustees, Richard Marchant, said:...

News in brief: SEI scoops multi storeys mandates.
February 6, 2006... SEI Investments has won a brace of multi-manager mandates with UK pension funds worth GBP31m. Storeys Group has appointed SEI to run a GBP16m global developed markets mandate, while Ansa Logistics has awarded the multi-manager a GBP15m...

News: Confusion for directors inevitable post A-day.
February 6, 2006... Advisers are warning that the new pensions tax regime from 6 April this year could herald a period of uncertainty over allowable pension contributions for small businesses and the self-employed. From 6 April, it will be possible to pay...

News: Harrods follows crowd in closing scheme to existing members.
February 6, 2006... Harrods, the London-based retailer, has followed the trend of slashing employee benefits by closing its final salary scheme. The scheme, which has a deficit of GBP111m, will close on 6 April to its 1,500 members, who will be able to switch...

News: Citisoft develops specialist asset advisory service to meet demand.
February 6, 2006... Pension fund demand for advice on derivatives and hedge funds has led a consulting firm to develop a specialist alternative asset advisory service. Citisoft, an investment management consulting firm, has launched its hedge fund and...

Letters: Clearing up the gearing regulation.(Letter to the Editor)
February 6, 2006... I would like to comment on the quoted remark by John Lawson, marketing technical director at Standard Life (PW 30.01.06), in connection with the opportunity that will arise for directors of small companies to invest their offices in...

News: ABI responds with counter proposals to Turner's NPSS.
February 6, 2006... The financial services industry is preparing to respond to the government's challenge for the private sector to better Lord Turner's proposals, when the Association of British Insurers (ABI) meets with him later this week. Stephen Timms,...

News: Punter Southall quits LA actuarial advice.
February 6, 2006... Punter Southall has decided to pull out of local authority actuarial consulting and to transfer its Glasgow-based local authority team to Barnett Waddingham's Glasgow office. Punter Southall's sister company, Psolve Asset Solutions, will...

News: Actuaries slam NPSS plan as too risky for employees.
February 6, 2006... The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has hit out at the Pension Commission's National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) ahead of the government's white paper on pension reform, claiming employers should take responsibility for offering...

News: Watson highlights volatility of deficits under FRS 17.
February 6, 2006... An GBP11bn drop in the pension deficits of FTSE 100 companies in January 2006 showed the volatility of deficits under FRS 17, according to consultant Watson Wyatt. The firm said the movement, from an overall GBP77bn deficit on January 18,...

Trustee: Getting lost in Peru.
February 6, 2006... Returning from a Christmas break in South America I read with greater than usual interest various articles littering my desk on the subject of developing markets. Much more interesting than pensions regulation to get me back into the swing of...

News: High costs and secret votes affect governance.
February 6, 2006... Effective corporate governance remains the sole domain of large pension funds, and shareholder voting is dogged by persistent secrecy, according to industry insiders. In spite of government initiatives to encourage engagement between...

News: Drop the DC default fund for under 1%.
February 6, 2006... Pension providers can deliver tailored financial advice in a 1% fee world and lift defined contribution (DC) members out of inappropriate default funds, according to Scottish Widows. The pensions provider has launched a corporate pension...

News: Prudential pins hopes on A-day surge with personal pension launch.
February 6, 2006... Prudential has launched an individual pension in the expectation that A-day will reinvigorate the personal pensions market. The pension, branded the Flexible Retirement Pension, has been set up outside the stakeholder charging structure to...

News: 40% of retirees missing out by not buying special annuities.
February 6, 2006... Canada Life is expected to enter the rapidly-growing enhanced and impaired life annuity market from the third quarter of this year. Only one in 10 individuals use the option market to buy an enhanced or impaired life annuity, even though an...

News: Last call for section 32 before A-day.
February 6, 2006... Winterthur Life is calling on financial advisers to ensure their clients' tax-free cash is protected by setting up a section 32 plan with a clustering option before A-day. The winding up regulations stipulate that transfers made after...

News: Portable pensions row.
February 6, 2006... The EU's draft directive on portable pension rights is set to ruffle UK pension scheme feathers as plans are forced to accept transfers in, according to Watson Wyatt. Dave Roberts, a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt, said UK schemes often...

News: More schemes opt for LDI investment.
February 6, 2006... Trustees and company sponsors are opting increasingly for liability-driven investment, but with some leeway to react to changing conditions, according to research. The research revealed the growing appetite among scheme sponsors for new...

News: Scottish Life appeals for long-term pricing structure.
February 6, 2006... Scottish Life is calling on other pension providers to move to a more sustainable pricing structure for personal pensions, or risk facing serious financial damage. The call comes as Ned Cazalet, the independent life insurance analyst,...

News: Annuities market expected to hot up.
February 6, 2006... Competition in the post-retirement market will increase as new providers enter, Defaqto, the financial research company, predicted. Aegon aims to become a top five player by the end of 2007 in a market which is currently dominated by a...

Events: Pensions regulator plays host.
February 6, 2006... The Pensions Regulator is hosting a series of free workshops in March to give practical guidance on dealing with scheme funding issues. The all-day events, held in Leeds, Edinburgh and London, will explore practical approaches to dealing...

Events: Barnett Waddingham run LDI seminars.
February 6, 2006... Actuarial consulting firm Barnett Waddingham is holding a series of seminars on liability-led investing. The seminars, which will be held at breakfast time and in the evenings, start on 15 February until 21 February. The seminars will be...

Events: Mercer plans ahead for A-day.
February 6, 2006... Mercer Human Resource Consulting is holding seminars on pensions simplification. The seminars aim to help companies and executives plan effectively for the challenges and opportunities simplification will bring. Topical issues relating...

NAPF Notice board: NAPF Scheme.
February 6, 2006... NAPF Scheme Funding Seminar Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 26 April The Pensions Regulator's consultation on the new scheme funding regime has just closed. In its own response to the consultation, the National Association of...

Ombudsman Watch: Hats off to the ombudsman.
February 6, 2006... While the rest of us were tucking into Christmas lunch and falling asleep in front of the TV on Boxing Day (supply your own cliches) the ombudsman must have been hard at work. From a productivity point of view, 62 determinations in January 2006...

Ombudsman Watch: DC decision.
February 6, 2006... Mr Wileman complained that he relied to his financial detriment on incorrect and misleading benefit statements issued on behalf of the trustees of his scheme. The administrators admitted their provision of incorrect benefit statements...

Governance Watch: Flagging up non-independent governance issues at SCi.
February 6, 2006... SCi Entertainment Group is holding its annual general meeting (AGM) on 7 February 2006 and RREV has serious concerns over corporate governance at the company. Prior to publishing its report to its subscribers, RREV made repeated attempts...

McAllister Investigates: Conservative policy - Hammond scores, but where is the Tory plan?
February 6, 2006... It is looking bleak. There is less than two months until the government publishes its white paper on pensions policy, following Lord Turner's Pensions Commission report last year. Yet the opposition parties are still out of the loop. The...

Opinion: Leader - Trustees should take their corporate governance medicine.
February 6, 2006... Employing good corporate governance is key to the long-term financial health of your pension fund but, much like going to the gym or following the dreaded GI diet, all that extra effort is terribly off-putting. Most schemes have tapped...

Opinion: Personal view - It's time to change the rules.
February 6, 2006... Pension fund deficits and low bond yields have been the stuff of extreme newspaper headlines; reality distorted by irrational masochism. Most UK schemes are solvent; misguided accounting standards and regulation are the root cause of the...

Opinion: Inside view - Alternative assets can be the mainstream core of a portfolio.
February 6, 2006... Recent press articles have thrown even more deeply into question the wisdom of pension trustees in committing more money to bonds at a time of pension fund deficits and falling bond yields. On 18 January, for example, the 50-year...

Campaign for pensions justice: Reporting the reality behind the headlines.
February 6, 2006... Sue - Sara Lee "I am 52 years old and joined Sara Lee in 1977 when the company first opened. I was made redundant in January 2004 after 27 years with the company. I was also a member-nominated trustee of the pension scheme, but it looks as...

People on the move: Xafinity board nabs Robinson to handle chief executive role.
February 6, 2006... The board of Xafinity has appointed Tim Robinson as chief executive, effective from last week. Robinson was senior vice-president and managing director of the security division as well as a member of the group executive board of Thales...

People on the move: Double selection reinforces product teams at JPMorgan.
February 6, 2006... JPMorgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed John Donohue as chief investment officer (CIO) of the London-based fixed income group and Dominic Powell as head of collateralised debt obligation (CDO) product team. In addition to his new...

People on the move: Hawkins treasures role as retirement adviser at Mercer.
February 6, 2006... Mercer Human Resource Consulting has appointed John Hawkins as a member of its retirement financial management team. Based in London, he will support Mercer's consultants in advising companies on how to effectively manage their pension costs...

People on the move: Sinha joins equity group at Britannic.
February 6, 2006... Britannic Asset Management (BAM) has appointed Krishna Sinha as quantitative analyst on the UK equity team. Sinha's role will be to explore and promote stock, sector and thematic recommendations. He joins BAM on 1 March this year. ...

People on the move: F&C shell out for Morgan.
February 6, 2006... F&C Asset Management has recruited Gareth Morgan as a fund manager in its emerging equities team. Morgan joins F&C from Shell Pension Management Services, where he was responsible for managing approximately GBP270m of non-Asian emerging...

News: DB or not DB? Hewitt tackles PPF over ruling.
February 13, 2006

News: Government's pension lifeboat looks likely to sink if European directives are not met.
February 13, 2006

News: Schemes blamed for delay in FAS compensation payments.
February 13, 2006

News: Regulator warns over delay in scheme return.
February 13, 2006

News: Hammond accuses Labour of ignoring wind-ups crisis.
February 13, 2006

News: PMI partners up to establish federation.
February 13, 2006

News: Morley closes on deals worth E250m.
February 13, 2006

News: Turner report misses its chance.
February 13, 2006

News: Government at odds over increase in retirement age.
February 13, 2006

News: Hedge funds see lively start to 2006 with strong returns.
February 13, 2006

News: Big Three show alternatives to NPSS.
February 13, 2006

News: ABI plans labelled 'stakeholder mark two'.
February 13, 2006