Lessons to learn from experience for pension schemes
A recent survey carried out by Barnett Waddingham asked trustees to identify the risks they were most concerned about for their schemes. It also asked trustees to share their experience of the types of risk events that had crystallised for their schemes over the past three years.
When the Department of Work and Pensions announced plans to use the Simpler Annual Statement as an industry standard, some schemes insisted that their whizzy, innovative communication was better. But maybe a predictable vanilla flavour of communication is what members really need.
By the time this article goes to press it will be a new year filled with new resolutions, new promise, new diets, debts and new rules about who you can meet and where. It certainly has been a year like no other. Brexit and, most acutely, COVID-19 have dominated the headlines, the national political agenda and the UK pensions industry: the consequences of both events will set the scene for what will be the ‘new normal’ for the years ahead.
Are you ready to manage your pension scheme through a corporate crisis?
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new Insolvency Act and the Pension Regulator’s expectations make scheme management ever more challenging. High profile collapses have taught us the importance of robust contingency planning to help protect member outcomes. It is vital that practical steps are taken now to get trustees and schemes ready for every eventuality.
Mending the holes of the pension pocket for the quantum workforce
COVID-19 has accelerated the disruption to the UK’s job market, catalysing an ongoing decline in permanent employment. Now, one in seven workers in the UK are on flexible contracts, up 25% over two decades. These workers are part of the growing quantum employment fleet, defined as a contractor working small, incremental jobs across a range of employers or end clients. Today, it is not uncommon for contractors to work just a morning or even a number of hours one day with one employer and then work double shifts later that week for a different client.
The popularity of Professional Corporate Sole Trusteeship
Sole Trusteeship is growing and looks set to continue. There are drivers for this, but some are concerned about this development resulting in higher costs, more employer focus than member focus and the potential for trustees to go unchallenged. This article explains why these concerns are largely unfounded and ways to mitigate some concerns.
