The UK House of Lords will soon consider scrapping final salary pension boosting measure The Lords Economic Affairs Committee has launched an inquiry into whether the retail price index (RPI) should be scrapped as a measure of inflation, a move which would make a huge dent in defined benefit scheme pensions. In 2010 the government […]
Archive | Pensions
Latest comment and news on current trends and articles relating to final salary schemes (other wise known as defined benefit schemes) with a focus on what is most relevant to expats in China
British Airways Final Salary Pension Closed
UK airline British Airways closes its Final Salary Scheme due to a long over due admittance that is un-affordable. British Airways has announced plans to close the larger of its two final salary pension schemes, saying the change would help fund investment. On the 7th September 2017 the airline unveiled plans to address the “significant […]
Final Salary Scheme Update
Final Salary Pension Scheme Update Hymans Robertson one of the largest institutions or so called Administrators who provide and manage these schemes for many large companies have recently published some findings from research Their research results raised some areas that should be higher on trustee’s agendas: Managing cashflows: whilst 57% of FTSE350 DB (defined benefit) […]
UK Pension Deficit Latest
The UK Pension Deficit is still big news despite not appearing in any Daily Mail headlines this year! The estimated size of the deficit is widely understood to be greater than £500bn. The combined final salary pension deficit of the UK’s 350 largest listed companies had more than trebled to reach £137bn in 2016 A […]
Transfer Values Up Slightly
Transfer values climb slightly from lows in late December A fortnight ago The Pensions Regulator said around 80,000 transfers out of DB pension schemes were made in the last year. It stated: “For the period of 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 defined benefit pension schemes have, in total, reported 67,700 transfers out […]
Annuities Mis-selling
Pensioners mis-sold annuities get thousands in compensation Standard life and The Pru have been appartently mis selling annuities Article from the BBC click here
UK Government threatens to remove index linking on final salary schemes
Defined – May be not so Defined in the Future! Unbelievably but conversely believable! – The UK government have released a green paper that puts forward the notion that soon struggling companies will be allowed to remove so-called ‘gold plating’ or index linking. The fact that these pensions were required to keep up with inflation […]
‘The Pru’ stops annuities
Affectionately known as ‘The Pru’, a dominant player in the UK’s life and pensions industry ends offering annuities The Prudential has announced it will pull out of the annuity market. It will stop writing all new policies by the end of 2017. It joins a long list of other large life companies that have recently […]