Pension news
Week ending 8 November 2019
TPR has confirmed that the process under which existing DC master trusts needed to seek authorisation has finished. The number of authorised master trusts is 37, down from 90 at the time the process started, and these cover 16 million pension savers. New safeguards for master trusts were introduced on 1 October 2018.
The DWP has published a consultation on simpler annual benefit statements for DC workplace pensions. It is seeking views on how to achieve simpler statements, how the statements would work with new communication tools and how to encourage members to actually open their statements! The DWP is also proposing more standardisation in the assumptions underpinning SMPI figures, to bring them more in line with FCA illustrations.
Based on the results of its recent survey of employers, the ACA has urged the Treasury to simplify the pensions tax regime. 75% of those surveyed believe that the current regime is too complicated and needs simplifying. 69% of surveyed employers want to abolish the tapered annual allowance, even if this means that the standard annual allowance needs to be reduced. Nearly half of surveyed employers said senior and high earning employees had left their pension schemes due to the current restrictions on tax relief.
A dispute on proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme has led to University College Union members voting for strike action. The proposal is to increase the member’s contribution rate from 8.8% to 9.6% of their salary. The strikes are to take place from 26 November to 4 December across 60 universities. The strike action is also due to a separate dispute over pay and working conditions.

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Recent publications

BAC News
Hymans Robertson announces today that it has acquired Bath Actuarial Consulting (BAC). At the same time Andrew Udale-Smith and Leonard Bowman from Bath Actuarial Consulting (BAC) will be joining the firm as new Partners.

29 January 2021
In the news over the last week, the DWP responds to its consultation on climate risk governance and reporting for pension schemes, transfer-blocking powers could be on the horizon, MaPS delivers on pension guidance and there’s more de-risking.

Pensions Arena October 2020
This quarter’s Arena has a summary of our recent Pensions Perspective, “Endgame planning comes of age”, which looked at how long-term funding and investment plans are evolving and why companies are increasingly taking the lead in designing an endgame strategy. It also shows all the usual financial and investment analysis for the quarter ending 30 September 2020.

Endgame planning
Journey plans or glide paths may have been around for a long time but they’re at the heart of the Regulator’s proposed new funding code. In this Pensions Perspective, Leonard Bowman looks at how long-term funding and investment plans are evolving and explains why companies are increasingly taking the lead in designing an endgame strategy for their schemes.

Pensions Arena July 2020
This quarter’s Arena has a summary of our recent Pensions Perspective, “Emerging from lockdown”, which looked at how best to tackle the most common pension issues which companies are currently facing. It also shows all the usual financial and investment analysis for the quarter ending 30 June 2020.
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