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The Chancellor delivered his Autumn Statement today with a particular focus on stability, growth and public services. In his Statement, the Chancellor sought to strike a balance between tax rises and spending cuts and also included measures which are designed to promote growth. As far as the pensions industry and employers are concerned, the headline … Read more
Here is the latest edition of our regular Pension Disputes Bulletin which contains summaries of key cases, Ombudsman decisions and regulatory activity and highlights emerging risks for pension schemes, providers, sponsors, administrators, and other service providers. In this edition, we cover the implications of: a recent judgment on the operation of a scheme’s forfeiture rule … Read more
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced that it plans to significantly reduce the amount it expects to collect through the PPF levy from 2023/24 onwards. This follows a review by the PPF of its Long-Term Funding Strategy. In light of its strong financial position, driven by strong investment performance and changes in the risk … Read more
In the latest podcast from Herbert Smith Freehills’ pension team, Tim Smith, Professional Support Consultant, is joined by Jon Forsyth, Partner and Actuary at LCP, to discuss the Government’s proposals regarding the need for defined benefit (DB) schemes to implement a long-term funding and investment strategy. In particular, Tim and Jon discuss: the likely impact … Read more
In the latest podcast from Herbert Smith Freehills’ pension team, Rachel Pinto, Partner, is joined by Richard Priestley, Managing Director of the Canada Life Insurance Division and Helen Hallam, Lead Counsel for Insurance at Canada Life. In their conversation, Rachel, Richard and Helen cover: Recent market conditions and affordability of bulk annuity transactions What practical … Read more
After a significant delay, the Government has finally published its consultation on draft regulations that will underpin the new long-term funding and investment requirements for UK defined benefit (DB) occupational pension schemes contained in the Pension Schemes Act 2021. These new requirements are designed to drive DB schemes towards a “low dependency” funding level by … Read more
The Government has confirmed the timetable for implementing pensions dashboards in its response to the consultation on the draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022. While the largest auto-enrolment master trusts and money purchase schemes together with public service pension schemes will be given a little longer to connect than had been proposed, the connection deadlines for … Read more
The Pensions Regulator and the DWP have issued a joint statement in an attempt to clarify how trustees should be applying the statutory transfer conditions introduced last November. This follows strong criticism about the wording of the legislation and concern about how some of the red and amber flags are being applied, which is leading … Read more
With the ongoing development and growing application of artificial intelligence, analytics and automation there is increasing public and regulatory interest in ensuring that any potential risks stemming from these technologies are mitigated. A key area of concern is around ‘bias’ and AI fairness. This whitepaper – which we prepared in collaboration with UK Finance – … Read more
