Today’s Daily Express headline was alarmingly topical for delegates passing the news stands on the way to the NAPF Europe conference this morning. It gave the speakers pause for thought – and scope for humour, with Fritz von Nordheim of the European Commission commenting that tomorrow’s headline could well be ‘Europe will steal your lunch money’. (more…)
Archive for April, 2012
‘Europe to ruin British pensions’?
Tuesday, 24 April 2012Protected rights problem: risk to short service refunds from pension schemes
Wednesday, 18 April 2012I’ve been considering the impact of the abolition of protected rights since last summer and yet new issues keep coming out of the woodwork! The latest is the possibility that paying short service refund lump sums from a pension scheme where the member has ex-protected rights could be an unauthorised payment unless the scheme rules are amended. Do you need to amend your rules? (more…)
Pension scheme trustees – when to challenge the employer
Friday, 13 April 2012One of the difficult questions we get asked is – how far do trustees have to go in checking how employers exercise their powers under pension scheme’s rules? Normally trustees can accept what the employer says at face value – and indeed many schemes’ rules tell them to do just that. They routinely do it on, for example, information about what a member earns. On straightforward factual information like this, I do not see that trustees need look further – unless there is something drawn to their attention which casts doubt on what the employer has said. It is in cases where a degree of judgment is involved that trustees are expected to check what the employer has said.
