Iain Clacher and Con Keating
I expect that this issue will continue to receive minimal attention on this from the consultancy teams advising trustees on funding, from the press which is generally driven by he consultants and from the majority of pension experts who’s view is shaped by what the press publicise.
The issues here are important to all of the above but most important to the members of pension schemes for whom the assumption may be that they will be happily accommodated as pensioners because of strategies that appear to have done them proud.
But this is based on a set of numbers by TPR which are fast diverting from those published by the PPF (who have been revising). They are even further from those produced by the ONS. To a lesser extent the PPF and a greater extent the ONS, the capacity of existing assets to meet the liabilities schemes must match is considered inadequate.
This is not because of lack of sacrifice by employers or indeed members y way of contributions. They have met the bills presented them by trustees (after agreement with the Pension Regulator). The loss of assets in the scheme can principally be attributed to the LDI strategies adopted by Trustees and in particular to the gearing created to make LDI work.
I am sure that there are many readers who would like me to focus on requiring employers and staff to pay more into DC pensions (master trusts under auto-enrolment for the most part). But to do so while ignoring the fate of the DB legacy is to ignore the basis of UK’s private pensions.
Thankfully in Con Keating and Iain Clacher (who sadly could not attend), we have people courageous enough to bring the problem to our attention. Thankfully there are people on the call from Tom McPhail to John Hamilton (various in experience of the issues). If you feel you are too inexperienced to involve yourself, catch me and my ignorant questions.
If you have questions about what you don’t understand, ask it in the comments boxes or put it to the experts via me on henry@agewage.com.
The issues that arose in September and October 2022 arose because people did not ask the questions they had but did not fully understand. I apologise for my appearance – I have teeth falling out following the incident on November 2024!
Here are the slides again
