2009 News

Berkshire Fund Longevity Swap
December 2009
Barnett Waddingham's public sector team have been working with our client, the Berkshire Fund, throughout their longevity swap exercise. The has been done as part of the risk reduction programme that ...

Crisis Kickback - Post Magazine December 2009
December 2009
The continued credit crisis has set in motion a raft of alterations to accounting standards. In December's edition of Post Magazine John O'Neill outlines these changes and their impact. For the full a...

Pre Budget Report 2009 – Issues for SSAS, SIPP and FURBS
December 2009
Tax Relief On Pension Contributions For “High Earners” As already announced in April’s Budget 2009 and set out in the Finance Act 2009, tax-relief on high earners’ pension contributions is to be restr...

Lord Mayor's Parade - London 2009
November 2009
In 2008 the Master, Wardens and Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries walked in the Lord Mayor’s Parade – or rather swam. It was the wettest parade for many years! In preparing for the 2009 Par...

Make your pension pay if you decide to stay in the UK
October 2009
Article by Jennifer Hill, The Sunday Times Money Supplement, 4 October 2009 Rising longevity could mean all your calculations need a rethink. Research compiled for The Sunday Times by Barnett Waddingh...

PPF cap reduction 'punishing' 90% of UK scheme
October 2009
IPE.com 1 October 2009 14:30 UK – Proposals by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to halve the cap on the risk-based levy could be seen as a punishment by the other 90% of schemes which are not affecte...

PPF reduces levy cap and scaling factor
September 2009
Article by Sophie Baker, Pensions Age, 30 September 2009 The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced plans to reduce the cap on its levy to 0.5 per cent, and has reduced the levy scaling factor fr...

Pensions Tax and Raising Revenue
September 2009
On 29 September 2009 a letter that Adrian Waddingham , Senior Partner at Barnett Waddingham wrote to the editor of The Times was published. The letter is below: Pensions tax and raising revenue Sir, P...

TPR urges employers to increase member help
September 2009
Article by Jenna Towler, Professional Pensions, 17 September 2009 The Pensions Regulator is urging employers that run defined contribution schemes to up their pension interaction with employees ahead ...

Start them young
September 2009
Article in DC World, Professional Pensions, 15 September 2009 Each month DC World asks readers for their views. This month we ask: What more can be done to ensure people are aware of their options at ...

A trick of the mind - Professional Pensions
September 2009
Article by Sebastian Cheek, Professional Pensions, 5 March 2009. How an understanding of behavioural finance can help to encourage DC members take a more active interest in their pension scheme. Accor...

Pensions lottery could make us all losers in long run
September 2009
Article by Jennifer Hill, The Sunday Times - Money Supplement, 13 September 2009 A former colleague relished telling me last week about two forthcoming new additions to the population. His wife is fit...

Barnett Waddingham CFA Exam Success
September 2009
Xia Wang has become the first person at Barnett Waddingham to successfully complete all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. The Firm was established in 1989 has seen an incr...

Barnett Waddingham appointed by Rexel UK
September 2009
Barnett Waddingham, the UK’s leading independent firm of actuaries and consultants, has been appointed by Rexel UK, a leading business-to-business distributor of electrical installation supplies. Barn...

Young schemes and those with assets just above threshold to benefit from PPF changes
September 2009
Article in Corporate Adviser Magazine, 1 September 2009 Barnett Waddingham is predicting that the pension schemes most likely to benefit from the changes to valuation assumptions announced by the PPF ...

Corporate Adviser - Countdown to 2012 Supplement
September 2009
In September 2009 Corporate Adviser magazine included a Special Supplement - Countdown to 2012, Shaping the deliver of workplace pensions. Clive Grimley was quoted in four of the articles: Commission ...

Commission Challenge
September 2009
Article by James Phillipps in Corporate Adviser, September 2009 The industry will need to come up with new remuneration models post-2012. Although a number of question marks remain over how the retail...

The shape of things to come
September 2009
Article by James Phillipps, Corporate Adviser, September 2009 With lawmakers currently making key decisions on auto-enrolment, personal accounts and the Retail Distribution Review, shaping the regulat...

Personal Benchmark
September 2009
Article by John Greenwood, Corporate Adviser, September 2009 Private sector pensions will need to show genuine expertise in the field of investment to differentiate themselves from the passive approac...

Corporate Adviser - Making a difference
September 2009
Differentiating private sector offerings from personal accounts will be crucial in the countdown to 2012. James Phillipps reports For virtually all businesses, the cost implications of auto-enrolment ...

Trustees pay for good admin
September 2009
Article by Nick Reeve, Pensions Management, 01 September, 2009 Scheme trustees are still prepared to pay for quality administration services despite the recession, according to PM research. Nuala Hedg...

Pensions Week - Gilchrist is trustee chair after EMI bins Smellie
August 2009
Music giant EMI has replaced its trustee chairman Ian Smellie with Bestrustees’ Clive Gilchrist. PW can exclusively reveal that this decision was taken at the end of May after the trustee board failed...

Pensions Week - Should schemes be more concerned about inflation or deflation dangers?
August 2009
Personal View by Alex Pocock (24 August 2009) There is a significant risk of longer-term inflation that could be far more damaging to pension schemes than short-term deflation We have seen the lowest ...

Professional Pensions - Amex suspends contributions
August 2009
By Jonathan Stapleton (20 August 2009) American Express has suspended company contributions to its UK pensions in a bid to cut costs. A spokesman for the financial services firm said the move would ap...

Professional Pensions - Valuation assumption changes will benefit those on the PPF threshold
August 2009
Jenna Towler (13 August 2009) Schemes with a younger membership and those with assets just above the Pension Protection Fund threshold will benefit from valuation assumption changes Barnett Waddingham...

Pension Veteran, Adrian Waddingham, predicts the return of DB schemes
August 2009
Adrian Waddingham talks to Steve Johnson at FTfm: UK corporate reporters have become attuned to spotting a sad litany of footnotes of late. All too often, it seems, companies are using the backdrop of...

Foster Wheeler Ltd – Appeal Court Ruling has implications for ‘Barber’ Equalisation
July 2009
The Court of Appeal delivered its verdict this week in the case of Foster Wheeler Limited v Hanley and Others. The original High Court judgment on 28 November 2008 had been appealed by Foster Wheeler ...

Auto-Enrolment & Personal Accounts: Summary of Proposals
May 2009
The Pensions Act 2008 includes the duty on employers to auto enrol “Eligible Employees” into a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme (QWPS). The duty is expected to begin from 2012, but may be staged ac...

Budget 2009 - Pensions Aspects
May 2009
New rules set out in the Government’s Budget 2009 could lead to a significant rise in tax bills for high earners (with income over £100,000). Individuals with income over £100,000 pa will need to care...

Inflation v Deflation
April 2009
Our latest information sheet looks at which should pension schemes be more concerned about - inflation or deflation? If you would like to discuss these issues further please contact your usual Barnett...

Controlling Your Costs - issues to consider
April 2009
Our latest information sheet looks at a number of ways to control costs, for example maximising the returns on your deposits, the PPF Levy (please also look at www.thelevyforum.co.uk ) and transfer ex...

Barnett Waddingham and MetLife Assurance Limited launch new service
March 2009
Barnett Waddingham and MetLife Assurance Limited have today announced that they have formed a strategic alliance to offer buy-out arrangement specifically designed for smaller pension schemes. Aimed t...

SSAS and SIPP Investment Summary December 08
February 2009
Please click on the link below for our latest SSAS and SIPP Investment Summary.

The Pensions Regulator's statement to UK employers on current market conditions
February 2009
The Pensions Regulator has today published a statement targeted at employers who sponsor defined benefit pension schemes. This deals with the funding of their pension schemes in the light of current m...

Trustee Meeting Handbook 2009
February 2009
We have updated our Trustee Meeting Handbook for 2009. The handbook is intended to be a reference guide for trustees to use at trustee meetings, to help their governance responsibilities. The handbook...

Current Issues in Pensions Financial Reporting
January 2009
2008 was a year of unprecedented movements in financial markets and this information sheet sets out some of the technical issues that those involved in the preparation and auditing of pensions disclos...

Barnett Waddingham corresponds with HMRC regarding LTA freeze
January 2009
The Government’s Pre-Budget Report on 24 November 2008 included an announcement that the Lifetime Allowance (“LTA”) would be frozen at £1.8m from 6 April 2010 for at least a further 5 tax years. It ha...

Local Government Transfer Value Statistics 2010 - 2013
January 2009
The calculation of the terms of transfer for individual members should be in accordance with the tables and instructions supplied by the Department of Communities and Local Government . The Adjustment...