June 2019

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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06Jun

UK.Rolls-Royce agrees 4.6 bln stg pension deal with insurer L&G

Rolls-Royce said on Thursday its pension scheme had agreed to transfer 4.6 billion pounds ($5.83 billion) of assets to Legal & General in Britain’s largest ever pension risk transfer deal. The deal covers the transfer of assets and liabilities relating to around 33,000 pensioners who are members of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund it said in a statement and would see Rolls-Royce pay a cash contribution of around 30 million pounds. Read more @Reuters

June 6, 2019
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05Jun

UK. FTSE 350 defined benefit pension deficit rises to £57 billion in May 2019

The accounting deficit for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes at the UK’s top 350 organisations increased by £5 billion between April 2019 and May 2019, rising from £52 billion to £57 billion, according to research by Mercer. The Pension risk survey, which analyses the pension deficit calculated using the approach FTSE 350 organisations have to adopt for their corporate accounts, also found that liability values increased by £11 billion in May 2019, totaling £856 billion; the report attributes this...

June 5, 2019
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05Jun

UK. Philip Green wins key vote for rescue plan ahead of meeting

The owner of Topshop has struck a £385m deal to secure its pension schemes, including a £100m contribution from Lady Cristina Green, Sir Philip's wife and Arcadia's largest shareholder. The PPF said it would now "vote in support" of Arcadia's restructure. But the plan, which includes closing 50 stores, needs the backing of landlords. They would have to agree to a rent cut on Arcadia's stores, which also include Burton, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis. Read more @BBC

June 5, 2019
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04Jun

UK. Pensions must do right thing on climate crisis, says minister

Pension schemes should be supported for moving people’s money out of fossil fuels and into renewables because the financial risks from the climate crisis are “too important to ignore”, a government minister will say on Monday. The pensions minister, Guy Opperman, is due to tell a conference that pension and investment managers must “do the right thing” and take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously to help combat the climate emergency. During the last few years a number of...

June 4, 2019
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