Category Archives: de-risking

CDC and Individual DC Outcomes – Iain Clacher and Con Keating

Posted on August 11, 2021 by henry tapper

  As a prelude to considering notional contribution allocation within a CDC scheme, it is worth asking the question as to how a 64-year-old and 24-year-old might have fared had they been in individual DC rather than in collective DC … Continue reading →

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A Minister Drinking the Regulator’s Kool-Aid – No Consolation

Posted on December 8, 2020 by henry tapper

An article by Con Keating The  preamble to a recent article in Professional Pensions by the Pensions Minister, Guy Opperman, read: ” In the fourth of a five-part series of articles for PP, pensions minister Guy Opperman sets out how … Continue reading →

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Who pays for us doing nothing? Pension schemes and the poor!

Posted on October 30, 2020 by henry tapper

Crikey, that’s some chart. But, what does it mean for future of credit etc? 1. Those who are attractive to lend to don’t need or want credit 2. Those who need credit most are not attractive to lend to. This … Continue reading →

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Which comes first – the dashboard or the data?

Posted on October 27, 2020 by henry tapper

I’m doing a call this morning with some pension strategy people , some from Fintech and some representing “old tech”. It’s a timely discussion as the Scottish National Party  limbers up to put a spoke in the wheels of an … Continue reading →

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DB pensions are in a hole, let’s swap the DWP’s spade for a ladder

Posted on October 24, 2020 by henry tapper

    Bowles my liege… It’s a great shame to read Guy Opperman excising Sharon Bowles amendment to the Pensions Act. The Bowles amendment  would give open pension schemes the capacity to be funded as ongoing concerns rather than being … Continue reading →

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Seven ways to improve Defined Benefit funding

Posted on September 10, 2020 by henry tapper

In March 2020, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) opened a consultation on its proposed revisions to the DB funding code. In framing its response, First Actuarial proposes seven ways to change DB funding for the better. What do we want the … Continue reading →

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Have DB pensions dodged the Beeching bullet?

Posted on August 19, 2020 by henry tapper

When the Pensions Regulator launched its DB funding consultation earlier in the year, I thought it a “slam dunk”.  Back then it was already clear the world was in the grip of a pandemic and the paper presaged what was … Continue reading →

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A practical illustration of Contractual Accrual Rates – Clacher and Keating

Posted on August 6, 2020 by henry tapper

  In this article Con Keating and Iain Clacher explain an alternative to the current way we require DB schemes to be funded. It challenges received thinking and offers a way forward to regulators struggling to find an acceptable funding … Continue reading →

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Death by discount rates

Posted on July 24, 2020 by henry tapper

Q: When is a million dollars not a million dollars? A: When it is not yet a million dollars. The pensions business is all about the long term. Fund managers like me are responsible for ensuring we have sufficient funds … Continue reading →

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An alternative to the dystopia of “pension de-risking”

Posted on July 13, 2020 by henry tapper

      One interesting thing about this episode is that we have seen the Pension Regulator’s preferred view ahead of the final legislation itself. Their usual defense of ”It’s the law that Parliament decided, and we are only implementing … Continue reading →

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