Alerts

Focusing on breaking news

• The Companies Act 2006 - exonerations and indemnities

  The Companies Act 2006 aims to codify all existing company law. Although it will not be completely in force until October 2008, some of its provisions have been brought forward and are now coming in from 1 October this year. For occupational pension schemes with a corporate trustee (Trustee Company) at the helm, this will once again bring about important changes to the protection of its directors from liability. Here we look at what is in store and what action may be needed.

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• Deregulatory Review - the simple life?

  The Deregulatory Review stems from the realisation that many layers of pensions legislation could be removed, merged or simplified. Following the publication of the White Paper, an advisory group was established to help the Government carry out an ongoing examination of legislation governing private pension provision. On 13 December 2006, two external reviewers, Chris Lewin and Ed Sweeney, were appointed to work with this group. Following a March 2007 consultation paper, the final report was published on 25 July 2007. But does it really offer a glimpse at a simpler legislative life ahead?

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• Draft Regulations - Tour de Transfers

  Like an alpine stage, the road to new law on pension transfers has often seemed like a long climb with no end in sight. But after a two year cycle, the "peloton" is finally freewheeling towards the finish line with the publication of a consultation paper on "Approaches to the Calculation of Pensions Transfer Values" on 6 July 2007. The wheels of change were initially set in motion back in May 2005 when the Actuarial Profession published Exposure Draft 54. As a direct result of that consultation, the Government decided to reconsider the legislative framework for cash equivalent transfer values (CETVs). This was followed by the Government's initial consultation in June 2006 and the publication of its reponse in January 2007. This latest consultation paper attaches a set of draft Regulations as well as including a detailed analysis of how the new structure derives from the existing actuarial guidance note on transfer values (GN11).

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• Institutional Review published

  In the White Paper of May 2006, the Government announced that it would be undertaking an external review of organisations involved in the regulations and protection of workplace pensions. In January 2007, Paul Thornton, a former President of the Institute of Actuaries, was appointed to undertake this task. In this Alert, we summarise the key findings and recommendations of the Thornton report.

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• New "Aussie Rules" on UK transfers

  Australia is one of the top destinations for UK migrants. For this reason many pension schemes will have been or will be involved in transferring pension benefits to its fair shores. From 1 July this year, Australia is introducing changes to its taxation of retirement benefits. In this alert we consider the impact of this on transfers from UK schemes.

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• Clearance - TPR moves the goalposts?

  The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has extensive anti-avoidance powers aimed at preventing employers from dodging pension scheme liabilities. However, a clearance procedure is in place which allows parties to seek a binding statement that TPR will not exercise its powers in relation to a particular event. TPR's current guidance says that, subject to limited exceptions, TPR will only intervene if a pension scheme has a deficit on an FRS17 (or IAS19) basis. But in a "clearance reminder" published today, TPR states that clearance may now be an appropriate consideration even if a scheme is fully funded on a FRS17 / IAS 19 basis.

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