With the increased focus on governance of trustee boards and the Pensions Regulator (the “Regulator“)’s expectation of skilled, engaged and diverse trustee boards being led by an effective chair, the selection of the “right” trustees is becoming even more important. As employers will often be responsible for appointing trustees to trustee boards, you will find below four factors employers may want to take into account before appointing any new trustees.
Continue Reading Trustee Board Selection – What Do Employers Need To Think About?

The Pensions Regulator recently published guidance for supervising the consolidation of defined benefit pension schemes into superfunds. The guidance provides an interim framework for the regulation of superfunds, prior to a statutory framework being put in place.

It’s a step towards establishing a superfund industry which could be a viable endgame option for certain schemes in the future.Continue Reading DB Superfunds – a viable endgame?

Each spring, the Pensions Regulator (“tPR”) publishes its Annual Funding Statement on what it expects for defined benefit pension scheme actuarial valuations. With the recent 2020 publication, it is of particular interest to employers because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whilst aimed at pension schemes with valuation dates between 22 September 2019 and 21 September 2020, it is also relevant for schemes experiencing significant changes and which have to review funding and investment risk.Continue Reading TPR Annual Funding Statement 2020

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is the body responsible for regulating workplace pension schemes in the UK. Where an employer operates a defined benefit trust-based pension scheme for its employees, legislation requires it to notify TPR if certain events occur. Some events must always be notified, while others only need to be notified in certain circumstances.

On 15 October, the eagerly awaited Pension Schemes Bill (the Bill) had its first reading in the House of Lords. Whilst the Bill addresses the launch of collective defined contribution (or CDC) pension schemes and includes provisions enabling pensions dashboards, employers will be particularly impacted by the new requirement on trustees to produce a funding

When making certain future changes to their pension scheme, employers should keep in mind the requirement to consult with their employees before making the change. In this blog post, we run through the key aspects of member consultations to provide a reminder of what exactly employers need to do, and why they need to do it.

Who?

Employers who have 50 or more employees based in Great Britain are subject to consultation requirements set out in the relevant consultation regulations. This threshold is based on the number of employees the employer has, even if some of those employees are not pension scheme members.Continue Reading Talking pension changes

With the introduction of automatic enrolment, increasing longevity, and employees focusing on the full benefit package offered by an employer, rather than just salary, an employer’s pension offering is under the spotlight. However, despite the increased relevance, the difference between types of pension scheme is not always clear. So, what are the key differences between a workplace trust-based pension scheme (“Trust Scheme“) and a workplace contract-based pension scheme (“Contract Scheme“)?
Continue Reading To trust or not to trust, that is the question

A traffic policeman on motorway patrol passed a car that appeared to be driving at 11mph. The policeman pulled the car over, and asked the driver why he was going so slowly.

“I saw a sign saying that the speed limit was 11mph” said the driver. “A big blue sign, with white numbering.”

“That’s not the speed limit, that’s the road name – the M11” said the policeman. The policeman then looked at the passenger, who was sitting rigid in her seat, a rictus grin on her face. “What’s the matter with her?” asked the policeman. “Well” said the driver, “we’ve just joined the motorway from the A120.”

Interpreting laws and regulations can be difficult – particularly in highly technical areas such as pensions, where legislation can be opaque at the best of times. The Pensions Act 2004 tried to ameliorate this problem by giving the Pensions Regulator the power to flesh out legislation by issuing Codes of Practice. Codes of Practice have a special status: they have to be laid before Parliament before they come into force; they are admissible in legal proceedings; and if they appear to be relevant to the question the court has to decide, the court has to take them into account. (Albeit, on occasion, judges have “taken into account” Codes of Practice by brusquely dismissing them.)Continue Reading Sign of the times …

The possibility of a Pensions Bill in the next parliamentary session should provide clarity on the funding framework for defined benefit (DB) schemes.

The Government’s white paper in March 2018 proposed that the Pensions Regulator should issue a revised code of practice focusing on how prudence is demonstrated when assessing scheme liabilities, appropriate factors for recovery plans, and ensuring that a long-term view is considered when setting the funding objective. Some or all of the funding standards contained in this revised code would be given statutory force.Continue Reading DB scheme funding: all about the long-term