Pensions Week articles from February 2009

Pensions Week archives from February 2009

News: Assurance sought for buy-in deals.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The Pensions Regulator is holding urgent talks with the insurance industry to clarify how members would be compensated if an insurer defaults on its obligations. The discussions - which involve the Association of...

News: SPC calls for levy leniency.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David Rowley The Society of Pension Consultants (SPC) has asked for a temporary amnesty on PPF levies and longer deficit reduction periods. In a meeting with pension ministers Rosie Winterton and Lord Mackenzie, the SPC also...

This week: January is over at last.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Editor History shows us that in times of great hardship, a lot of traditional rules either get suspended by wise governments or, in the absence of good leadership, they get smashed by mobs. There is a growing...

News: Accounting 'flaw' hides GBP100bn FTSE deficit.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David Rowley The pensions deficit of FTSE 100 companies would stand at around GBP100bn without the recent fall in value of AA bonds, according to a Pension Capital Strategies (PCS) report. However, taking into account the...

News: Age Concern in hot water over section 75.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby The parent of a multi-employer pension scheme has been accused of failing in its moral duties to inform all member schemes of legislative changes. Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East claims that its parent...

News: CIPFA calls for changes to LGPS rules.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Rules that limit local government pension schemes' (LGPS) private equity and hedge fund allocations are likely to be lifted. In a report entitled Options For change, the Chartered Insitute of Public Finance and...

News in brief.
February 2, 2009... Deputy pensions ombudsman Charlie Gordon has paved the way for the pensions ombudsman to introduce time limits for complaints. In the case of Mr Lever vs Lancashire County Cricket Club Players Life Assurance and Retirement Benefit Scheme,...

News: Rubenstein revealed as PPF chief executive.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has appointed Alan Rubenstein, a former managing director at Lehman Brothers, as its next chief executive. Alan Rubenstein takes over on April 1 from Partha Dasgupta, who will...

News: Dutch ruling good news for schemes.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Pension schemes that have investments based in the Netherlands are in line for a multi-million pound windfall after a ground-breaking Dutch court ruling. It determined that Dutch tax authoritiescontravened EU law...

News: Zurich to deliver Royal Mail scheme.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David Rowley The Royal Mail Group has appointed Zurich as the service provider for its new defined contribution (DC) scheme. Zurich will be responsible for providing a bundled bespoke package of investment, administration and...

News: Letter.
February 2, 2009... I'm delighted to be able to reassure the DC consultant quoted in the article Governed range to help with TCF requirements (PW, January 27). Scottish Life's new investment proposition does indeed offer considerable flexibility. This...

News: Schemes to benefit from lending restart.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The end of the Financial Services Authority's ban on short selling is set to reopen an additional source of revenue for pension schemes. The prohibition of the activity - when investors sell borrowed securities to...

News: Stylo takes steps to avoid entering PPF.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Stylo, the Bradford-based footwear retailer, is attempting an innovative restructuring to avoid its pension scheme falling into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). Under the terms of the plan, the firm's...

News in brief.
February 2, 2009... Schemes with overseas employers should ask them to make special contributions to exploit the weak pound, according to Danny Vassiliades, principal at Punter Southall. "A GBP10m contribution would now make up a GBP9.5m funding deficit,...

News: Pooled funds show overseas asset bias.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Balanced pooled funds are now investing more in overseas shares than UK equities, according to a survey. Fund allocations to UK equities fell from 43.5% to 36.5%, while allocations to overseas shares stood at 38.7%...

News: Public sector benefits continue to rise.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts An average 40-year-old male civil servant will receive his pension for 29 years following retirement at age 60, according to government data. In the accounts for the civil service pension scheme, the government...

News in brief.
February 2, 2009... The GBP280m Powys County Council pension scheme has appointed Hewitt Associates as its investment adviser. Hewitt will provide investment and corporate governance advice, and monitor the performance of the scheme's fund managers. A...

News: Business down 11% for Friends Provident.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby Friends Provident has reported significant drops in its life and pensions business. The insurance giant's end of 2008 trading report showed total full year life and pensions new business was down by 11% to...

News: Positive predictions for buyout activity in 2009.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby Buyout levels will match the pace set in 2008 despite the economic downturn, according to Lane Clarke & Peacock (LCP). As insurers' confidence retu-rns, the number of buyouts will remain above the low levels of...

News: From light touch to heavy-handed regulation.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Clive Gilchrist - Managing director, Bestrustees After years of investigations and reports, including a damning ruling from the parliamentary ombudsman, the government's response to the plight of Equitable Life's policyholders was...

In depth: Charity case.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby Last March, Age Concern England (ACE) admitted it was considering closing its final salary pension scheme in order to make up its GBP13m deficit. Then, a fortnight ago, the Swindon branch of Age Concern was forced...

In depth: The investment market has no time for regrets.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Sarah Smart - Independent consultant and trustee Je ne regrette rien. A French phrase we are all familiar with, but which is quite hard to say and even harder to actually do. Investment is an area that is ripe for regret when...

In depth: Personal view - Is it ever too late to start derisking?
February 2, 2009... Byline: Peter Routledge Financial directors (FDs) face a challenging 2009. One particular headache for many will come from their defined benefit (DB) pension deficits, caused by a combination of falling asset values and maturing...

In depth: Jargon buster.
February 2, 2009... Rainmaker Someone who makes things (usually deals) happen. This is a bit of jargon used by investment banks for someone who brings in business by persuading companies to do deals. It's a term of respect. Ransom strip A bit of...

In depth: Technical view - Greater choice or more confusion?
February 2, 2009... Byline: Justin Grainger In February last year, the Pensions Regulator put forward a proposal suggesting pension schemes who used anything less than the long cohort longevity assumption in arriving at a valuation would face regulatory...

In depth: Governance - Pensions bonus with no strings attached.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Powdrill Our pensions are in trouble. As the National Association of Pension Funds' (NAPF) recent paper on the impact of the financial crisis on pension schemes demonstrates, the cost pressures on schemes mean that something...

In depth: My life outside pensions.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Mark Da Silva - Partner, Barnett Waddingham Getting a first in maths at Oxford and becoming a leading actuary would be enough for many people in pensions, but Mark Da Silva is also one of the country's top jazz musicians. Da...

In depth: Notice board - NAPF conferences and training.(Conference notes)
February 2, 2009... NAPF Investment Conference 2009 Investment today for tomorrow's needs: Choices, challenges and change March 11-13 Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) In demanding times it's more important than ever to be...

Trusty30: The impact of the downturn.
February 2, 2009... 01 - Do you expect fund manager fees for new mandates to fall this year? A report due from Mercer's investment consulting arm in the next week or so is likely to show that fund manager fees will tumble in 2009. Clearly not all...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Introduction.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby - Deputy editor Welcome to Pensions Week's first Legal Insight. Given the high number of pensions law cases filling the UK's courts in 2008, the editorial team thought it was time to provide some valuable insight...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Exploring the legal terrain.
February 2, 2009... Pensions, and in particular pension litigation, is a fast-growing area of law. While some firms have operated pensions practices for nearly half a century, others have only joined the sector recently, such as Clarke Willmott, which opened its...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - A game of two halves.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Roderick Morton In the current financial climate, trustees of defined benefit pension schemes are sharpening their focus on the support they receive from their scheme's sponsoring employers. With additional deficit repair cash...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Company focus - A word from the sponsor...
February 2, 2009... Background Herbert Smith is a full service international law firm with a 1,300-lawyer network across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has a long-standing reputation for advice on mergers, acquisitions and takeovers as well as...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Pulling from both sides.
February 2, 2009... Byline: David James Much like the improvisation game Whose Line Is It Anyway?, it is difficult to be too prescriptive about how to approach incidents of potential conflicts of interest. The existence of conflicts of interest is not a new...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Company focus - A word from the sponsor...
February 2, 2009... Background Sackers is the UK's largest specialist pensions law firm and is unique in the marketplace. Described in Chambers UK 2009 as a "fantastically good, proactive and generally pragmatic pensions specialist", the practice has...

Special Supplement: Legal insight - Legal jargon buster.
February 2, 2009... Anti-franking requirements Anti-franking legislation requires that statutory indexation of an individual's guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) is paid in addition to any amount by which the scheme benefits exceed the GMP, and is not deemed to...

On the move: Grahame takes on Hermes boutique.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Hermes Real Estate has named Steven Grahame as chief investment officer in alternatives to spearhead investment in debt, derivatives and property shares. He joins from Watson Wyatt, where he was a senior investment...

On the move: Going places.
February 2, 2009... Hughes to head up property fund body The Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) has appointed Bill Hughes as its new chairman. Hughes is managing director of Legal & General Property and replaces Nick Cooper, global chief executive of...

On the move: Top 4 moves.
February 2, 2009... 01 - Yuichi 'Alex' Takayama OLD - Takayama was senior European equities analyst at Mizuho Trust & Banking NEW - He becomes chief executive of Tokio Marine Asset Management's London office Tel: 020 7398 3190 02 - Helena Goy...

News: Indexation must end to save firms.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Business and pension groups are calling for action to abolish the indexation of defined benefit (DB) pensions to help companies avoid insolvency during the recession. The National Association of Pension Funds...

News: Special deal for low paid at BT.
February 9, 2009... In a special deal for low paid BT employees, increased employer contributions will be part-funded by making smaller contributions to some senior managers. The deal has been worked out as part of a lengthy pensions review at the telecoms...

This week: Money's too tight to question.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley - Editor The questions we are not supposed to ask are a woman's age, decisions made in the ballot box, a colleague's salary and (as someone in the office just informed me) whether someone's hair is dyed. A lot of such...

News: BT raises the bar on DC contributions.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley BT is to set a new benchmark for generous employer contributions when the full details of its defined contribution (DC) scheme are announced this month. It currently matches contributions up to 10% of salary into...

News: Advisers agree to barter on performance, but not price.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Consultants have pledged greater use of performance-related fees, but not price cuts, to help cash-strapped clients. While few consultants are expected to raise fees this year, Aon, Mercer, Hewitt Associates,...

News: Govt called to meet demand on gilts.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has called for more coordination of gilt issuance with pension fund demand. In its response to the Debt Management Office's (DMO) consultation on gilts, the NAPF...

News in brief.
February 9, 2009... Annuity rates have continued to fall this month, according to Alexander Forbes Annuity Bureau. Level annuity rates have fallen sharper than in recent months. Norwich Union currently provides the best rates, but has cut its level male rate...

News: Questions remain over auto-enrolment.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby The government's report into whether auto-enrolment will benefit employees has met with mixed reactions. The Saving for Retirement: Implications of Pensions Reforms on Financial Incentives report claims that 95%...

News: Staff move to GPP scheme at Linklaters.
February 9, 2009... Linklaters has introduced a 'futureproof' group personal pension (GPP) scheme for its 2,500 staff. All new entrants will be auto-enrolled into a lifestyle default fund, provided by Axa Winterthur, and will have a new simplified...

News in brief.
February 9, 2009... Insurance giant Aviva has attributed its financial strength to helping achieve an 11% increase in life and pension sales in 2008. UK sales hit GBP11.9bn last year, marking the insurer's highest ever sales figures for the sector. Andrew...

News: Hymans launches scheme deficit comparison tool.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Nick Reeve Hymans Robertson has created a new way of measuring and comparing pension fund deficits. It claims that penSAFE will give a clearer picture of the pensions landscape than accounting standard IAS 19, by covering the...

News: SMEs advised to diversify.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Small to medium-sized (SME) firms have been urged to diversify pension fund investments now, rather than wait for equity prices to rebound. Multi-manager Investment Solutions said that diversification would...

News: Legal comment - Is money purchase the right answer?
February 9, 2009... Byline: Roderick Morton - Partner, Herbert Smith The current market downturns and deepening recession have been hailed as the latest 'final nail in the coffin' for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. The National Association of Pension...

News: Healthy figures for enhanced annuities.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby Enhanced annuities are now estimated to make up a quarter of all annuities sold in the open market in the UK, according to Watson Wyatt. Its research has found that sales of non-conventional annuities in the UK...

News: IASB proposals sparks horror from actuary.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Amendments to the IAS 19 accounting standard will put the full weight of defined benefit (DB) promises onto companies' income statements. These were set out in an update published by the International Accounting...

News: Nervous market turns to gold standard.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby Gold could be profitable in the medium to long term, thanks to ongoing issues with supply and demand fundamentals, according to a fund manager. Evy Hambro, manager of BlackRock's World Gold and World Mining...

News: Flexi retirement rules need greater clarity.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts & David Rowley The government is being urged to make flexible retirement procedures clearer over concerns about precisely which benefits can be taken. Since 2006, flexible retirement has allowed members of a...

News: Q4 results show fall in liability trades.(Financial report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The volume of liability hedging trades shrank between September and December last year, according to research. Derivatives were used to hedge GBP19m of interest rate risk and GBP15m of inflation risk, based on...

News in brief.
February 9, 2009... The NAPF is supporting government proposals to help institutional investors on voting issues. David Paterson, head of corporate governance, said: "There is a need for greater transparency around voting at general meetings, and these...

In depth: Buyer beware.
February 9, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Should pension funds batten down the hatches by removing all risk from the table, or position themselves to take advantage of the investment opportunities being presented to them? This was the subject of a recent paper...

In depth: The answer for pension reform is universal.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Frank Field - MP for Birkenhead, Labour There could not be more chilling news. It is not now simply a case of companies pulling up the drawbridge and excluding new employees from their pension schemes. No, it is that some companies...

In depth: Personal view - The long-standing romance with equities is set to be rekindled.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Michelle McGrade I have been blindly in love with investing in the stock market all my life. Way back when I was at university in New Zealand, I funded my skiing through my investments. Last year, my favourite asset class let me...

In depth: Jargon buster.
February 9, 2009... Securitisation Turning a loan between one organisation and another (often a bank) into a security, which is bought and sold by investors. It refers to the process of turning a loan into something that can be traded. All sorts of things...

In depth: Technical view - It's a buyers' market for manager fees.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Andrew Parry Following a year in which most global equity markets fell by more than 40% in local currency terms, investment management fees are being placed in even greater focus than usual. Nowhere is this more evident than for...

In depth: Governance - Who will be sweating under the spotlight?
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tom Powdrill The past few weeks have seen a variety of different actors in the current financial maelstrom invited to give their version of events to the Treasury select committee, which is holding an enquiry into the banking...

In depth: Without prejudice.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Adam Bushby - Pensions partner, Lawrence Graham LLP Equalisation Fixing a problem can be a daunting prospect, particularly when previous attempts to do so have created new and complex challenges of their own. Spare a...

In depth: Notice board - NAPF conferences and training.(Conference news)
February 9, 2009... NAPF Investment Conference 2009 Investment today for tomorrow's needs: Choices, challenges and change March 11 - 13 Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) The conference will focus on key issues, principally how...

Pensions workout: Beginner - Rights issues and employer covenants - Beginners' level.
February 9, 2009... The phrase 'cash is king' is on the lips of almost every finance director and treasurer right now, and with capital from banks still difficult to come by, we expect the ongoing financial difficulties to prompt a number of quoted companies to...

On the move: Capita crowns head of pensions comms.
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Capita Hartshead has appointed Louise Harris to the newly created position of head of pensions communications. She joins from Thomsons Online Benefits, where she was in charge of communication consulting, and has...

On the move: Going places.
February 9, 2009... Ruffer chooses the right Guy for the job Independent investment manager, Ruffer, has appointed Guy Thornewill to its research team to focus on European equities. He joins the firm from Alliance Bernstein and has 12 years' experience in...

On the move: Top 4 moves.
February 9, 2009... 01 - Steven Grahame OLD - Grahame was at Watson Wyatt, where he was a senior investment consultant NEW - He becomes chief investment officer in alternatives at Hermes Real Estate Tel: 020 7702 0888 02 - Bill Hughes OLD -...

News: Conservatives commit to DC for new MPs.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Charlie Kirby The Conservative party has confirmed it will move all new MPs onto a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme if they win the next election. Theresa May, shadow secretary for work and pensions, said the...

News: Actuarial fees see councils ditch and switch.
February 16, 2009... Byline: David Rowley Concern over the cost of actuarial fees has helped Barnett Waddingham win three local authority clients from Mercer, Hymans Robertson and Hewitt Associates. Barnett Waddingham's Glasgow-based local authority...

This week: Governance steps into the limelight.
February 16, 2009... Byline: David Rowley - Editor 'Indexation must end to save firms' has proved to be one of our most provocative headlines. The letters from the TUC and Unite on page 6 make clear the depth of feeling on scrapping guaranteed inflationary...

News: More schemes sign up to take on corporates.
February 16, 2009... ,David Rowley. Demand for shareholder engagement services have soared amid concerns that organisations such as the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) failed to do enough to prevent corporate excess. Hermes Equity Ownership...

News: NAPF gets tough with amendments to voting rules.
February 16, 2009... Byline: David Rowley The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has created tough new corporate governance standards for company chairmen ahead of this year's AGM season. The amendments to its voting policies focus on people who...

News: Pressure mounts on govt to suspend levy.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The government is facing a fresh call to reduce or temporarily suspend Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levies for companies in financial distress. The move follows the publication of a statutory instrument to allow...

News: Buyout sees reshuffle in market share.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts Legal & General (L&G) leapfrogged Paternoster to become the buyout market leader last year by the value and number of deals. L&G wrote 173 cases worth a total of GBP1.8bn, while Paternoster slipped from top spot...

News in brief.
February 16, 2009... BNP Paribas, the French investment bank, has closed its pensions advisory office in London. The bank is continuing to market swaps and alpha-seeking products through its corporate and institutional teams. "We announced we would be...

News: Regulator secures deal for Sea Containers plans.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts The Pensions Regulator has approved the financial support arrangements for the two Sea Containers pension schemes to reduce their funding deficits. Under the terms of the plan, the Sea Containers 1990 Pension...

News: Execs fear pension schemes put their firms in jeopardy.
February 16, 2009... Byline: David Rowley More than one in 10 companies in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Netherlands and the US see their pension fund as a threat to their survival. A survey carried out by SEI of 157 executives found that 11% did not have...

News: Letters.(Letter to the editor)
February 16, 2009... The argument that 'Indexation must end to save firms' (PW 09/02/09) encapsulated various comments from opportunistic pundits seeking to rekindle this argument on flexibility. Last December, the government response to the consultation...

News: Confusion looms over buy-in default process.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Tom Willetts More uncertainty has been created over who compensates members in the event of a buy-in insurer defaulting. Pensions Week reported last month that the Pensions Regulator is holding urgent talks with the Association...

News: Boost for low paid at BT.
February 16, 2009... Byline: David Rowley BT has set a unique minimum employer contribution of GBP1,250 a year for members of its new group self-invested personal pension. The threshold, which will increase to GBP1,500 from April 1, 2010, has been...

News: Investment comment - Taking a market-neutral approach.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Sonia Uys - Alternatives product specialist, Insight Investment Equity market-neutral funds have proved their ability to deliver steady returns in this bear market. We expect pension demand for them to grow as income- generating...