The UK Pensions Act 2004 has turned the defined benefit pension promise into a pension guarantee and has established the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) in order to secure this guarantee where a company becomes insolvent and the scheme is underfunded. The Act has greatly upset corporate pension...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of key issues in the governance of defined contribution pension schemes, with a focus on investment matters, and to recommend best practices. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the results of an online survey of the...

Large sections of the UK population are failing to make adequate provision for their retirement, and one area where provision is notably poor is amongst people working for small and medium sized businesses. We use information gathered from interviews with individuals from a wide range of...

Dealing with the reluctant investor examines the governance of defined contribution (DC) schemes with reference to investment choice and, in particular, the design of the default fund. We explain where and why the current system fails to support DC scheme members and what steps can be taken to...

The report shows that pension providers and advisers are finding it increasingly uneconomic to market to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and are withdrawing rather than redoubling their efforts. This is an important and difficult issue for both government and private sector providers