DB & Derisking

Video: Cookson Group Pension Plan manager John Reeve, and LCP principal Emma Watkins, discuss how schemes can construct pensioner buy-ins that are fair and good value for their entire membership, in this first PW Review (5:58).

The £1.6bn Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London has decided to suspend members from transferring in their old private sector pensions to manage the risk and cost of regulatory changes, including auto-enrolment.

Analysis: A tough market this year made it difficult for schemes to derisk, but the MNOPF is the latest in a series of funds that managed to insure members' benefits during 2012.

A multi-pronged communication strategy helped the Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund secure a £680m buy-in to insure the remaining liabilities of one of its legacy schemes.

UK Coal has given itself 10 to 12 years to erase its £450m pension deficit, its finance director said, following a major restructure that saw its pension schemes take a three-quarter stake in its property division.

One of the UK’s largest industry-wide schemes will offer employers a career average benefit for auto-enrolment, which it says embodies defined ambition by giving certainty in retirement and cost-effective administration.

Data analysis: Schemes face tough choices over whether to reset their LDI derisking triggers, which are out of step with market pricing, leaving them short of their desired level of hedging.

The chancellor's Autumn Statement released this afternoon announced a consultation to smooth the rates used to discount scheme liabilities, and reduce further the lifetime and annual tax allowances for scheme members.

Plans for defined ambition are still not clear enough, despite the government's recent publication of a long-awaited paper into the idea, a select committee MP has said. 

The tension of growing deficits and cash-strapped sponsors is putting trustees under enormous pressure, the Association of Member-Nominated Trustees has said, as pension debts become a growing cause of company insolvency.