The Pensions Regulator has authorised the first collective defined contribution scheme (CDC) which will be offered by the Post Office as Professional Pensions reports.
There is a huge debate about whether collective defined contribution pensions can deliver for scheme members mostly on the workplace pensions side of the fence.
Arguably the true test will be the creation of industry or sector-wide schemes closer to the Dutch model, though that system has also not been without controversy in recent decades.
I think we are long way from a settled idea of what good looks like for the vast bulk of the UK’s retirees. Those with financial advisers are surely the best placed by far.
A quite extraordinary tale in Money Marketing. A pensioner has expressed frustration with scheme administrator Mercer after he says he lost £600,000 off the value of his pension pot.
Duncan Inglis of Glasgow told Money Marketing that his pension pot was valued at £1.4m before Mercer took over administering the Scottish Power Pension Scheme in January 2022.
He said within a year of Mercer taking over the running of the scheme, the value of his pension pot has dropped to £800,000.
This does look to have involved the gilt crisis and plummeting transfer values.
Mercer comments – “As with all defined benefit pension schemes, the rise in gilt yields will of course have a detrimental impact on the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value of a benefit and for this scheme, communications were issued to members informing them of this position during 2022.”
It would be good to get more information about this story and the chain of events.
This is a big people move. St James's Place has appointed LGIM's Justin Onuekwusi as chief investment officer.
Two Scottish Mortgage investment trust managers have rejected shareholder comparisons to Neil Woodford’s former LF Woodford Equity Income fund regarding its private equity exposure as Professional Adviser reports.
During an investor webinar last month, fund managers Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns were quizzed by clients.
The first difference, Slater said Scottish Mortgage invests in global firms "with an average size of $10bn", whereas Woodford was focused on "UK companies valued at $200m".
"We are not getting into small companies. These are big established investments for the main part."
Slater also highlighted the different structures of the funds, noting "we are solely a closed-ended vehicle". "Therefore, we are not a forced seller of these assets, and those are two absolutely fundamental differences in approach."
It is arguably bad to be asked the question, but the answers do seem reasonable.
