Latest News

Top Story

DB inefficiencies push scheme overspending to £300m a year


By Sophie Smith

Defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are collectively spending up to £300m more than they need to each year due to inefficiencies and lack of automation, research from Spence Partners has revealed.

The research showed that inefficiencies often occur in DB schemes where scheme advisers interact and share data between each other, revealing that typical DB scheme systems are "fragmented" with data moving between as many as five different systems on average


Story 2

Nigel Peaple to step down as PLSA director of policy and advocacy

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has announced that director of policy and advocacy, Nigel Peaple, is stepping away from his current role to work on a part-time basis as the PLSA’s first chief policy counsel

Story 3

'Significant' improvements made in average pension transfer times

The average overall pension transfer time "significantly" improved in the 12-month period since January 2023, falling by 12.2 per cent from 14 to 12.3 days, according to Origo’s Pension Transfer Index data

Story 4

Front-end dashboard rules must support feedback-based changes – DOC

Front-end pensions dashboard rules must support consumers’ requests for post-launch changes, the Dashboard Operators Coalition (DOC) has stated

Story 5

Unnamed pension scheme completes £136.3m buy-in with Just Group

The trustee of an unnamed pension scheme has agreed a £136.3m buy-in deal with Just Group, resolving the scheme’s liquidity issues

Story 6

Industry research reveals 'mismatch' between DE&I policies and action

Although the majority of UK asset owners agree that diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) correlates directly with business performance, research from Pensions for Purpose has found a “surprising discrepancy”, with a marked lack of engagement in underlying portfolio companies

Story 7

Latest LGPS Member Data Services Procurement Framework launched

The latest National Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Procurement Framework for Integrated Service Providers (ISP) and Member Data Services has been launched

Check out our latest news

PSIG ‘unsustainable in current form’; launches consultation on its future

The Pensions Scams Industry Group (PSIG) has published a consultation aimed at determining the future of the organisation
FCA announces dashboards modification

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has introduced a modification to allow firms to connect to the pensions dashboards digital architecture before 31 October 2026, even where they are unable to provide 100 per cent of their relevant scheme members’ data
Shadow Pensions Minister reportedly resigns

Shadow Pensions Minister, Gill Furniss, has resigned from the role after less than eight months in the position, according to reports
PDP shares updated pensions dashboards data standards

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has published the updated data standards for pensions dashboards, as the industry continues to prepare for connection to the dashboards ecosystem

BANNER

Govt warned against plans to require DC schemes to disclose UK investments

Industry experts have raised questions over the government’s plans to make defined contribution (DC) pension funds disclose their level of investment in British Businesses, warning that this additional disclosure obligation will not drive the desired behaviours
Pension policy dissatisfaction on the rise following Mansion House reforms

Two-thirds (66 per cent) of pension professionals believe that pension policy has been dissatisfactory in the past six months, up from 61 per cent last year, according to the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) pulse survey


View More News

Highlighted Content

Illiquid assets and bulk annuities: Overcoming the challenge

Standard Life explores the considerations for trustees around managing illiquid assets ahead of a bulk purchase Iannuity transaction

Check your pensions dashboards connection date here

The countdown to pensions dashboards is on! Use Heywood's connection date finder to uncover your scheme's connection date and outline everything you need to do to prepare.

Pensions Age Awards Winners Brochure

Congratulations to all of this year’s worthy winners and many thanks to all our sponsors and guests

Latest Podcasts

View More Podcasts

View Videos

Check out our latest appointments

Check out our latest features

Purposeful run-on

Is surplus extraction the way forward for DB schemes, asks Chloe Whelan

BANNER

A delicate balance

Lynn Strongin Dodds looks at the balance between the desire for DC schemes to increase their sustainable investments, and the hesitancy to pay the higher fees of illiquid assets to do so

Defining ‘value’

David Adams reports on the efforts of regulators and the industry to create a new framework to measure and report on value for money

The pensions/gilts relationship

UK government bonds – or gilts – have long played an integral part in pension strategies. We look at the place they hold in today’s evolving industry, and the effects of the 2022 gilt crisis on pensions

Technical Actuarial Standard 300: Pensions, version 2.0

Mark Harris explains the changes, effective now, to the Financial Reporting Council’s Technical Actuarial Standard for pensions

Educational responsibility

In the latest edition of Pensions Age’s financial literacy special focus, Lynn Strongin Dodds explores what role the industry has in improving financial literacy and how it can help enhance people’s pension knowledge

Sustainable investing: A change in attitudes?

Abigail Williams explores whether the recent withdrawal of some large asset managers from the Climate 100+ initiative is part of a broader trend and, if so, what this could mean for pension schemes’ sustainable investing agendas

DB innovation: Consolidation as an emerging endgame

Following the recent announcement of superfund Clara’s second deal, and proposals for a public-sector consolidator, Chloe Whelan looks at the innovation occurring in the DB consolidation space

A little saving makes a big difference

Laura Blows speaks to Nest Insight director of research and innovation, Jo Phillips, about its research and trials to help increase people’s savings levels

New thinking

As part of Pensions Age’s financial literacy special focus, Jack Gray speaks to Money and Pensions Service new CEO, Oliver Morley, about his plans for the service and the efforts to improve financial literacy levels in the UK

Shifting relationships

Laura Blows explores how the increasing use of professional trustees is changing board dynamics with advisers, and how the boundary between additional trustee services and advisory services is starting to blur

Best of British?

Sandra Haurant explores how UK pension funds are being encouraged to invest in ways that would boost UK economic growth

View More Features

Check out our latest jobs


View More Jobs

BANNER

BANNER

DB risks
Laura Blows discusses DB risks with Aon UK head of retirement policy, Matthew Arends, and Aon UK head of investment, Maria Johannessen, in Pensions Age's latest video interview

Sustainable equity investing in emerging markets
In these highlights of the latest Pensions Age video interview, Laura Blows speaks to Premier Miton Investors fund managers, Fiona Manning and Will Scholes, about sustainable investing in equities within emerging markets

Building investments in a DC world
In the latest Pensions Age podcast, Sophie Smith talks to USS Investment Management’s head of investment product management, Naomi Clark, about the USS’ DC investments and its journey into private markets
High-yield Investing
Laura Blows discusses short duration global high-yield strategies with Royal London Asset Management head of global credit, Azhar Hussain, in the latest Pensions Age podcast

Advertisement
© 2019 Perspective Publishing     Privacy & Cookies