You can read the project that the “Vision” is on this link. It is part of a move within TPR to turn itself into a prudential regulator like the FCA. I support that move,
I am not a trustee and though my partner is , we are not going to the events TPR are organising next week which are exclusive to pension trustees.
I suggested that TPR listened to what Baroness Altmann proposed as an amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill. Her amendment would make trustees pay attention to all sides of the argument by looking at the numbers laid out by their actuaries in TAS300 (V2). I have sent TPR’s Vision people this account of the debate in the House of Lords
The past is where the money is , the past is our DB heritage and though DC master trusts and a few occupational schemes with substantial DC exist, they are little more than savings schemes. If TPR want the future to be about pensions they are going to keep our pension savings buying pensions, the old phrase was “money purchase” as savings bought annuities, this can still be the way forward if we revert to flex and fix with “fix” being annuity.
The alternative is CDC and this is a second project in the hands of TPR that I’d like to be a part of.
A third element of TPR’s development is “value for money”, a concept that needs development itself. For many people, the big question is whether they are getting value for money from their pension saving- which is currently into DC savings plans and increasingly master trust based plans (the heritage being increasingly GPPs).
If there is anything going on in DC pension saving, it is going on in this work which is joint with the FCA. It will need to answer the “comparison” questions that people as employers (paying) or employees (saving) will have about funding retirement. Just what will we get as “pensions” and what’s best value. The Government has made this statement which throws a spanner in the VFM framework consultation in my opinion.
An uplift that sounds like improved value for money to me!
What next?
Finally, I’d pick out of TPR’s initiatives their innovation support
On August 3rd, TPR will open its doors to organisations that want to get a CDC scheme authorised. This will not be a retirement CDC scheme but a whole of life scheme. So CDC will move to its next stage by throwing its doors open to all employers who want a go at improving pensions by up to 60% (on a VFM comparison.
TPR’s “innovation” is important to me, as it is helping CDC schemes happen this year. This will bring real VFM to our pensions.