But how much should employers be doing to encourage employees to save for retirement?
I’m at the 2009 NAPF Annual Conference at the moment and this is one of the themes of the conference. Postal communications do not seem to work – it is face-to-face presentations and discussion forums which make a difference.
Legislation protects employees from discrimination on the grounds of religion as well as a philosophical belief (or lack of it). Political beliefs are definitely not covered but what counts as a philosophical belief ? Ever since the law came in (2003) I have thought it inevitable that this would spark litigation sooner or later – and now it has. It’s the issue in an employment tribunal case which was widely reported in the national press last week. The outcome could have important implications for pension schemes.
You would have thought pension lawyers would be the last to enter the world of blogs, but here we are, and there’s a reason for it. A regular question I get asked by clients is “what are your other clients doing?”, and it’s a good question. You probably already get bulletins and the like from us and other law firms but that is usually on new developments – not so much on what is really happening at the coalface.
George Osborne’s announcement to the Tory party conference of a potential acceleration in the rise in the state retirement age will have set more than a few hares running. The Shadow Chancellor’s proposal is that, if the Conservatives win the next election, the age at which a man can take his state pension could rise to 66 from 65 as early as 2016.
Trustees are still licking their wounds from the recent economic turmoil and using the current breathing space to reassess their investments and strategic direction. One thing I bet they are not doing though is reviewing their custody arrangements and testing whether they are fit for purpose. However the collapse of once venerable institutions such as Lehmans has actually highlighted a number of legal issues with custody arrangements which I suspect lots of trustees are blissfully unaware of.
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