Press Releases

“We are pleased to see that the FCA has listened to the industry and softened its stance on what would be viewed as ‘advice’. This is a big relief given the wording in the consultation was detrimental to member education and informed decision making. While the consultation published previously by the FCA looked generally helpful in its aim to help drive up advice standards across the board, it contained highly contentious wording which was of concern to trustees and sponsors of DB schemes."

First launched last October, funding from the Bursary continues to prioritise supporting 16-25 year olds into jobs, volunteering, and further education as well as financially supporting young people at the senior end of school.

With almost 15 years’ experience in the pensions industry, Shabna joined Hymans Robertson in 2006 and is a qualified actuary. Shabna has an in-depth understanding of both the DC and DB markets, specialising in provider selection exercises, implementing new pension arrangements, pension scheme design and member communications.

“Buy-ins/buy-outs and longevity swaps have now insured £300bn of risk from DB pension schemes in the last 14 years, since this market took off in 2007. Interestingly, over half of that amount (over £150bn) has been transacted in just the last four years, which is a clear sign of the acceleration of growth in this market."

“We welcome TPR’s consultation on the first phase of its consolidated code project which combines 10 of the existing Codes of Practice into a web-based 51 module system and addresses the requirement of the IORP II regulations for all schemes to have an “effective system of governance”.

Commenting on what how the CMA rule has been taking effect, Samora Stephenson, Senior Investment Consultant, Hymans Robertson, argues that the ruling is working:

“The purpose of the CMA’s call to retender fiduciary management services was for schemes to not only demonstrate good governance but to ensure that fiduciary management provides value for money for the scheme. It is a concern, then, that over a third (38%) of schemes are estimated not to have started the ball rolling on this."

Half (50%) of scheme trustees surveyed cited key aspects of the project, including data cleansing and project management, as being particularly difficult, the findings from the research revealed. The leading pensions and financial services consultancy warns that wind up projects are among the most costly and complex projects most schemes will ever undertake. It is vital that all options and challenges are understood and considered to ensure success of the project and avoid poor member outcomes.

"We welcome the government’s commitment to exploring how they can remove barriers to investing in illiquid assets. We believe some “illiquid” assets can improve member outcomes at retirement and as schemes become larger, the more traditional problems such as daily liquidity are likely to be less of a challenge."

“Freezing the Pensions Lifetime Allowance until 2026 is quite simply a kneejerk reaction by the Chancellor for short term financial gain and comes just 3-years after the Government committed to increase it in line with inflation. It is bitterly disappointing to see him renege on this promise so soon and viewing those impacted by this change in pensions tax policy as necessary collateral damage." 

The firm, which has a century of experience in delivering bespoke investment advice to large institutional clients, has now developed its Tailored Portfolio Service (TPS). This new service will provide adviser firms and their clients with all the efficiencies and risk-reduction associated with outsourcing investments, but with the additional benefits of tailoring.

Hymans Robertson, the leading pensions and financial services consultancy, has promoted Kieran Mistry to Head of Non-Traditional Risk Transfer.  In this new role Kieran will lead the firm’s advisory service supporting DB pension scheme trustees and sponsors considering new and emerging risk transfer options, including superfunds, capital backed solutions and alternative insurance products.

“We welcome today’s change which addresses the situation where LGPS funds were in effect forced to choose which set of regulations to breach. We are also glad to see that members will be effectively reimbursed, and that employers are receiving clear instruction to treat such cases as if the cap had not applied."