Do you have quality DC pension scheme governance?

10 February 2014 The Pensions Regulator has followed up its work on the DC Code and DC Regulatory Guidance with their views on how trustees (both for single- and master-trust vehicles) should assess and communicate their compliance with these initiatives. To recap, the DC Code lays out the legal framework for DC trust-based pensions and provides suggestions of practical guidance on how to comply whereas the DC Regulatory Guidance lays out the Regulator’s view on the quality features underpinning their view of good practice. The Regulator has laid out 31 key quality features in areas such as trustee knowledge, training…

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My Trustee Philosophy

15 January 2014 I’m often asked to summarise my top-level thinking on how I approach trusteeship – my trustee philosophy. This question is most often posed with respect to the investment duties involved but – as there is no such thing as a solely investment-focused trustee – the principles involved serve me in the wider exercise of trustee duties. I hope that you find them interesting … please remember you read them here first !

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DB Pensions – End-December 2013 PPF 7800 deficit

15 January 2014 The Pension Protection Fund produces a monthly index update (this month’s release has data taken as at end-December 2013) of the estimated funding position of the defined benefit schemes which would be potentially eligible for entry into the Fund. December marked the third consecutive month with an improvement in eligible scheme funding – with average universe funding ratio increasing from 95.0% to 97.6% reflecting a fall in overall deficit from £59.7bn to £27.6bn. Overall, 2013 was a good year for universe deficits with nine out of twelve months showing improvements and the average funding ration improving from…

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DB Pensions – End-November 2013 PPF 7800 deficit

20 December 2013 The Pension Protection Fund produces a monthly index update (this month’s release has data taken as at end-November 2013) of the estimated funding position of the defined benefit schemes which would be potentially eligible for entry into the Fund. November again marked an improvement in eligible scheme funding – with average universe funding ratio increasing from 93.8% to 95.0% reflecting a fall in overall deficit from £75.6bn to £59.7bn. This small change had less to do with universe assets – which fell slightly – than with an improvements in the current value of liabilities – which fell…

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Seasons Greetings from Veasey Associates

20 December 2013 2013 marked another busy year for pensions. The auto-enrolment process moved on to large to medium size employers, with much debate about the relative merits of contract-based, trust and mastertrust solutions. We continue to work hard on considering the merits of lifestyling and target date funds with justified focus on default fund construction – might Collective Defined Contribution provide one solution to misalignment of risk balance between employer and company ? … only if workable products are put forward in the right regulatory environment. In the meantime, the Government continues to support attempts to continue the DB…

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DB Pensions – End-October 2013 PPF 7800 deficit

22 November 2013 The Pension Protection Fund produces a monthly index update (this month’s release has data taken as at end-October 2013) of the estimated funding position of the defined benefit schemes which would be potentially eligible for entry into the Fund. October marked an improvement in eligible scheme funding – with average universe funding ratio increasing from 92.9% to 93.8% reflecting a fall in overall deficit from £85.0bn to £75.6bn. The latest PPF update reflects their shift to the new 2013 Purple Book dataset and so does restate previous figures, however the overall picture is unchanged. Report and analysis…

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  • Author: Martin Veasey
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