Commenting on the DWP/FCA/TPR pensions Value for Money consultation outcome published today, Rona Train, Partner and Senior Consultant, Hymans Robertson, said:

“We welcome the joint response and view many of the proposed developments as being positive in terms of delivering better long term outcomes for members. In particular, we support the focus on forward looking, projected outcomes as well as past performance. With the increased availability of funds, and the greater ease with which schemes can now invest in private assets, we’ve seen and will continue to see, significant development in investment strategies. Past performance focus alone would mask those recent developments. We’re also pleased to see consultation on the use of consistent assumptions to be used across schemes. This will remove the potential biases caused by firms using different assumptions to assess the future returns of their strategies.

“It’s disappointing that legacy schemes are not included within scope given that many members remain in old defaults but we understand the difficulties associated with this. However, these are the members who are arguably most at risk of not getting value for money so we welcome steps to focus on these members in future.

“A further positive from the consultation is the proposal to use Mastertrusts as clearing houses for small pots, given the number of members this potentially impacts. This will make sure that these members are not left stranded in poorly performing arrangements.”