June 2019

27Jun

UK. Ministers ‘sit on £7bn unclaimed benefits’ as pensioners suffer

More than one million pensioners are living in poverty while the Government hoards billions of pounds worth of benefits. Around £7billion of Pension Credits have gone unclaimed since 2017, meaning that some of the most vulnerable older people are missing out on around £49 a week. Experts predict the overall figure will rise to £17billion by 2022 – and from June 2020, over-75s will also find themselves without a free TV licence after the BBC's decision to offer the...

June 27, 2019
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25Jun

UK. Asset managers step up on cost transparency

Data collection and analysis platform ClearGlass has added six asset managers to its list of firms that have provided 'exceptional' cost transparency to their clients. ClearGlass provides investment cost reports to pension schemes by collecting and analysing data from asset managers, according to the standardised templates prescribed by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Institutional Disclosure Working Group (IDWG). The platform was set up by Chris Sier, the former chairman of the IDWG and a professor at Newcastle University Business School....

June 25, 2019
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24Jun

UK. Record £7 billion of longevity risk reinsured by PIC in 2019

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has completed £5.8 billion (USD 7.4 billion) of pension buy-ins and buyouts and has reinsured a record £7 billion (USD 8.9 billion) of longevity risk so far in 2019. The specialist insurer of defined benefit pension funds has highlighted a very active year for the pension risk transfer market, which has seen PIC conclude a huge £5.8 billion of buyouts and buy-ins with the trustees of these schemes. During 2019, PIC has also reinsured £7...

June 24, 2019
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24Jun

US. Retirement Plan Electronic Delivery Under Consideration

Retirement plan electronic delivery (e-delivery) may soon be the default method when a plan sponsor issues a retirement plan disclosure notice. This is predicated on the Department of Labor (DOL) acceptance of a recent proposal made by a group of industry organizations. As reported by a Planadviser, eight defined contribution (DC) plan industry organizations, including the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and The SPARK Institute, have sent a letter to the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the DOL asking...

June 24, 2019
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20Jun

UK Workplace Pension Members Saved £90.4 Billion in 2018

Eligible UK employees contributing to workplace pensions saved a total of £90.4 billion ($114.6 billion) in 2018, a £7 billion increase over the amount saved the previous year, according to the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). DWP data shows that annual total amounts saved increased for both public and private sector pensions compared with 2017, although this was far more pronounced among private sector employers whose savings rose £4.5 billion, while the amounts saved in public...

June 20, 2019
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18Jun

UK. Millions at risk of retiring on incomes below living wage

Pensions providers have been called on to do more to encourage people to save for their retirement as estimates suggest millions of people are at risk of retiring on incomes far less than the current “national living wage”. Since the introduction of automatic enrolment in 2012, which obliged employers to auto-enrol qualifying staff in workplace pensions, some 10 million people have started saving, many of whom would not have done so before. A minimum of 8% of pensionable earnings...

June 18, 2019
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17Jun

Is it normal to face €2,300 fee on UK pension transfer?

I am a 54-year-old woman, who has 20 years of various pensions from working in the UK. I have been living and working in Ireland for 14 years. The transfer value of my UK private pensions totals about £250,000 (€283,000). I have been discussing this with a number of financial advisers - and am now close to transferring my pensions to Ireland. Part of my pension portfolio comes from an eight-year service with a bank I have worked with...

June 17, 2019
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11Jun

UK. CMA produces new requirements on investment consultants and pension trustees

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has completed its changes to the investment consultancy and fiduciary management sectors with new rules covering the appointment of service providers by pension scheme trustees, and information provided to them. The CMA order (24 page / 230KB PDF) is the conclusion of an investigation into the supply and acquisition of investment consultancy services and fiduciary management services to and by institutional investors and employers in the UK. The investigation began in 2017 and...

June 11, 2019
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10Jun

UK. Doctors will leave NHS unless they see pension reforms, union warns

The Conservative Government must reform NHS pension taxation or risk an exodus of doctors and a major workforce crisis, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned. The doctors’ union has requested an urgent meeting with Health Secretary Matt Hancock to see what can be done to stop experienced doctors leaving. Concerns about high-earning doctors’ pensions were raised in 2016 after the introduction of the “tapered annual allowance”. Under the scheme, for every £2 of income above £150,000 per year,...

June 10, 2019
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07Jun

UK. Women fight pension age changes in court

Nearly four million women born in the 1950s have been affected by the raising of the state pension age from 60 to 66. Two claimants who are part of the Back To 60 campaign group have now taken the Department for Work and Pensions to the High Court in London, arguing that the change "unlawfully discriminated against them on the grounds of age, sex, and age and sex combined". They also claim that they were not given adequate notice....

June 7, 2019
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