Compass provides commentary and analysis of recent legislative and regulatory developments affecting pensions and employee benefits.
Compass provides commentary on and analysis of recent legislative and regulatory developments affecting pensions and employee benefits.
This edition of Compass opens with a focus on the perennially hot topic of Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) equalisation, considering the significant ruling in the Lloyds Bank case regarding past transfers that included GMP.
The court ruled that schemes have a duty to ensure that they have paid the correct transfer values historically, which may compel them to make top-up payments in respect of transfers as far back as 1990.
Our second article focuses on the Data Standards Guide released by the Pensions Dashboards Programme.
This is a key step in the development of the dashboard project, which will continue to gather pace throughout the year, with voluntary onboarding targeted for 2022.
Following this, we discuss The Pension Regulator’s recent initiative to establish an industry standard ‘pledge’ to combat pension scams.
The Regulator calls on trustees, providers and administrators alike to make the pledge as part of a commitment to stopping scammers and protecting pension savers.
Our fourth article focuses on the Government’s push for simpler annual benefit statements as a means for increasing member engagement.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released its response to the outcome of its industry consultation on the issue and has indicated its preferred way forward, including a mandatory ‘season’ for all schemes to issue their statements and a set two-page template for them to adopt.
Elsewhere in Compass, we cover: