March 2019

07Mar

UK. PensionBee flags risks of Now Pension fee structure

Fintech consolidator PensionBee has warned of "an unacceptable level of risk" that a large proportion of pots in Now Pensions will be eroded to zero by charges. Last month the master trust, the third biggest in the market, defended its charging model after criticism from Labour MP Steve McCabe. Mr McCabe, a member of the Work and Pensions select committee, said at a hearing in Parliament that Now Pensions had a charging structure where they charged a £1.50 admin...

March 7, 2019
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06Mar

UK. End to unnecessary benefit reassessments for disabled pensioners

Hundreds of thousands of disabled pensioners will no longer have to go through unnecessary reassessments for disability benefits, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has said today (5 March 2019). Around 270,000 people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have reached State Pension age will no longer have their awards regularly reviewed, instead moving to a light touch review every 10 years. The changes are part of a wider package of measures announced by Amber Rudd, signalling a shift...

March 6, 2019
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06Mar

UK. Pensions watchdog tells weak companies to stop handing cash to investors

Weak companies have been told they must stop dishing out fat payouts to shareholders if they are struggling to fill a hole in their pension scheme. The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which has a responsibility to safeguard pensions, said that if an employer is “weak and unable to support the scheme” then it expects the “payment of shareholder distributions to have ceased”. The disparity between shareholder dividends and pension contributions has been a major area of focus since the high-profile...

March 6, 2019
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05Mar

Phoenix Group sees more UK Plc pension insurance deals as Brexit nears

Phoenix Group, Europe’s largest owner of life assurance funds closed to new customers, expects Britain’s approaching departure from the European Union to push more UK companies to offload risks linked to their pension schemes in 2019. The company also reported higher full-year profit and targeted cash generation of 3.8 billion pounds ($5.01 billion)from 2019 to 2023, more than the 2.5 billion pounds it earlier expected to earn between 2018 and 2022. Phoenix, poised to enter London’s blue-chip index, also...

March 5, 2019
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04Mar

How sustainable income levels can protect portfolio strength

Taking a sustainable level of income is important in helping drawdown customers maintain a resilient portfolio during periods of investment volatility. Customers in income drawdown should think about the impact of volatility on their pension. While someone building up a pension can mitigate the effect of market falls by continuing to make contributions to their pension, those in income drawdown are not only not making contributions, they are actively drawing down their fund so it has less chance to...

March 4, 2019
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February 2019

28Feb

UK. Pension trustee admits stealing £280,000 from pension scheme

An accountant and pension trustee being prosecuted for fraud by The Pensions Regulator has admitted stealing over £280,000 from a pension scheme. TPR says the accountant used the scheme like a “personal piggy bank.” In TPR’s inaugural fraud prosecution it heard Roger William Bessent plead guilty to five counts of fraud and two counts of making employer-related investments at Preston Crown Court today. The regulator will ask for three other counts of employer-related investments to be left to lie...

February 28, 2019
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26Feb

UK. Urgent need for real estate industry to adapt to ageing population, report shows

The report, which was written by Professor Les Mayhew of the Cass Business School, at City University, examined the impact that increasing life expectancy will have on UK society and found that too many older people are living in unsuitable housing. This perpetuates the housing crisis and stores up problems for the future. The UK population is expected to increase by 10 million over the next 25 years, with much of that due to people living longer. This has...

February 26, 2019
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21Feb

Putting workers before investors makes DB schemes affordable

Companies would be able to afford defined benefit schemes if their bosses were forced to pay into them before they pay out to shareholders, new research showed. According to a study from Sun Yat-sen University, Exeter University and Lancaster University Management School – which examined around 1,655 companies from 2003 to 2011 - incentivising executives to fund their pension schemes was more likely to see the schemes survive than threatening bosses with prison sentences. Amber Rudd, secretary for work...

February 21, 2019
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20Feb

Brexit pensions saved after deal between Irish and UK governments

Brexit pensions worries are eased after deal between Irish and UK governmentsFood tariffs threat  to rural heartlandMinisters on alert for UK crash-out The governments of Ireland and Britain have guaranteed the continued payment of state pensions, child benefit and other social welfare payments in the event of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal. Thousands of people living here get pensions and other payments from Britain, while Ireland also pays people who live in the UK. Now a legally...

February 20, 2019
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19Feb

Munich Re closes longevity swap deal with Lafarge pension scheme

German reinsurer Munich Re has completed a longevity swap deal with the Trustee of Lafarge UK Pension Plan, the UK pension scheme of French industrial company Lafarge. The arrangement is intended to reduce the Plan’s exposure to longevity risk, which arises when pensioners live longer than expected and thus claim more money on their retirement plans. Lafarge identified longevity risk as the largest individual risk in its plan due to its focus on defined benefit (DB) schemes, which pay...

February 19, 2019
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