Pensions Management has discovered Gerry O’Neill and James Verne – two of the key architects of Standard Life’s corporate platform strategy – have been suspended from their positions, pending an enquiry.

O’Neill, previously head of the corporate business, was brought into Standard Life when the insurer purchased his Vebnet business in 2008 for £24.2m.

Sipp members in acquired admin company will find themselves paying higher annual fees than those in parent company’s scheme

Montpelier self-invested personal pension (Sipp) members could find themselves paying £175 a year more than members in Curtis Banks, despite the administration being run by the same firm.

Investment advisers have warmly welcomed the return of index-linked savings certificates from NS&I, introduced last month.

First confirmed in March’s 2011 Budget, the issuances will assist NS&I in meeting its net financing target for 2011-2012 of £2bn. To meet this target, NS&I will need to achieve inflows of some £14bn.

A financial recruitment consultancy has launched a platform for existing IFAs to sell their book of business ahead of the retail distribution review (RDR).

Paul Clutton, group managing director of Professional Recruitment and managing director of IFA brokerage Tomorrow, said the business would also provide a platform for acquisitive IFAs or those seeking a merger to meet likeminded businesses.

The downward pressure on the cost of running self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) is unlikely to continue unchecked, according to PM’s latest Sipp roundtable (see page 40).

Steve Latto, head of pensions at Alliance Trust, said many Sipp providers had suffered high Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levies and as a result many would not be able to afford to continue to reduce fees.

Heath Lambert Private Clients (HLPC) is taking its direct to consumer (D2C) message to the market with the launch of its online annuity service.

The service is designed to become a one-stop shop for those facing retirement and seeking an annuity quote.

Close Asset Management has selected FNZ to deliver a new multi-channel platform.

The platform will cater for users from Close’s wealth and asset management service, which provides integrated advice and investment products to both private and institutional clients in the UK.

For a person considering saving into a pension scheme for the first time, pensions minister Steve Webb’s recent plans for colour-coded pensions are intriguing.

As part of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) initiative to ensure the success of auto-enrolment, the minister suggested the quality of a pension scheme should be denoted by a gold, silver or bronze badge. Such a colour scheme would tie in with the London Olympics in 2012.

The Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) consultation paper on data collection will discourage saving, restrict advice availability and overly burden small businesses, PM has heard.

Issues arising from the retail distribution review (RDR) rules on adviser charging and proposals for protecting consumers through collating data on complaints are outlined in the paper.

Financial Services Association (FSA) regulation is a barrier to people engaging in their pensions, according to Aviva head of investments Anthony Rafferty.

Speaking during a speed-debate event hosted by Aviva, Rafferty criticised the regulations in place to protect consumers, warning they could discourage people from making properly informed decisions about how to save for retirement.

The Law Commission’s response on adult social care has been widely commended by care specialists in the UK.

A detailed report, which produced 76 recommendations for the government, along with Andrew Dilnot’s commission on the funding of care and support (expected in July 2011), will assist in the development of the care and support white paper, expected in December 2011.

Pensions Management’s executive editor Charlie Thomas has won the financial trade journalist of the year award at this year’s Headlinemoney Awards.

Held at the Hilton Park Lane Hotel, London, the awards were hotly contested again this year, with the judges noting the high standard of entries.

Early access to pensions is one of those topics that comes up time and again. The theory goes that if saving for a pension didn’t mean locking your money away until old age, then more people would actually save. When you’re struggling to survive financially, being unable to access the savings that could literally save you is frustrating to say the least.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has created a team to deal with transsexual people who are entitled to additional state pension having had gender reassignment before 2005 legislation was implemented.

This sensitive issue could affect any scheme – many of which follow the state model – causing possible disputes with members over gender equality and implications for spousal benefits.

ITV and car maker Bentley are the latest companies to enter into the growing longevity swap market.

The pair are gearing up to complete deals worth £1.8bn and £400m respectively in the next few months.

Large schemes, including British Airways, are taking on illiquid bank debt for short periods in exchange for their investment grade bonds.

The deals, sometimes called collateralised upgrade transactions (Cuts), involve investment banks swapping packaged mortgage and business loans (typically acquired from high street banks before the financial crisis) with schemes that then hand over an equivalent-yielding bundle of gilts, other developed government and blue-chip corporate bonds.

The Pensions Regulator is toying with the idea of naming and shaming schemes in wind-up that are not carrying out the process quickly enough.

The watchdog recently published its corporate plan for 2011-2014, including a raft of targets it aims to implement within the next 12 months.

Big hikes in contributions just announced for local government employers are leading to many exploring the use of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to help ends meet.

A quarter of local government pension scheme (LGPS) funding levels fell by 12%-15% between 2007 and 2010, triennial reviews show.

However, 3%-9% falls were most common (44%), according to Hymans Robertson figures.

Differences in the application of VAT in pension administration and corporate wraps are to be tackled at an industry meeting with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Malcolm Small, director of policy at the Tax Incentivised Savings Association (Tisa), has arranged the meeting in June to iron out differences in practice between tax offices in different regions on how VAT applies to ISAs within corporate wraps.

Employees will get coloured badges and targets to better communicate how healthy their retirement savings are, under plans dreamt up by pensions minister Steve Webb.

The system, themed to tie in with the London Olympics in 2012, could also apply to denote the quality of employers’ pension schemes. Webb likened them to the Duke of Edinburgh awards, which have the same bronze, silver and gold levels of achievement.

Shadow pensions minister Rachel Reeves told Steve Webb her own mother would suffer under his state pension reforms, in an impassioned debate in the House of Commons last month.

Reeves told the House 2.6 million women and 2.3 million men will have to wait longer for their state pension under the accelerated plans to raise the state pension age (SPA), including her own mother.

The Pensions Regulator has privately admitted assets under management (AUM) data for defined contribution (DC) funds will not be available for two years.

A decision has been made at the watchdog not to provide DC AUM data for this cycle and the following cycle of its DC Trust, despite feedback from asset managers and market experts the paucity is constraining the market.

Have you heard?...

Things you didn’t know about people in the industry and what they get up to

Though demand for active management remains high, it does not necessarily benefit the majority of investors. But what is the optimal balance between active and passive?

The question of active versus passive management has challenged investors for many years.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to buy an original Matt cartoon to add to my ever-expanding collection. Matt, if you don’t know, is a pretty famous cartoonist who does the pocket cartoon on the front of the Telegraph every day. The cartoon I’ve just bought was published on January 14 this year, the week of (but not the day of) my birthday; so the cartoon was a sort of birthday present, I guess.

IHT High net worth clients must now consider inheritance tax planning and pension income in conjunction to ensure they receive maximum retirement benefits without a huge tax bill.

For those of us involved with estate planning, pensions have become an ever-increasing part of the process. And since April 6, 2011, the most effective strategy to minimise inheritance tax (IHT) appears to be to use non-pension assets for living expenses up until age 75, and then crystallise pension benefits.

After a short career break, Mike O’Brien is firmly back in the institutional driving seat at JPMAM, and is determined to build a global business based on relationships rather than products

Not only did the Sipp market fare well during the recession, but it is expected to further augment off the back of the introduction of auto-enrolment

The acquisition of commercial property via a Sipp can be straightforward if clients plan carefully and consider the impact of regulation, cost and tax rules in advance of any purchase

It’s another year older but rather than slowing down, the self-invested personal pension (Sipp) market continues to grow bigger, stronger, more interesting and increasingly competitive.

That is excellent news for financial advisers and their clients who are keen to squeeze the maximum value from their pension savings. In an industry where products and price lists can easily be copied, there is constant pressure on providers to offer high quality service in order to retain and attract new clients.

Alistair Hardie: The adviser will recommend the appropriate tax wrapper to the client based on their individual circumstances. That might be a fully functioning self-invested personal pension (Sipp), or a limited choice of, say, a mutual funds Sipp. I am not sure it really matters what the tax wrapper is, as long as long as the customer knows and understands what they are buying into, what the costs are and how that tax wrapper can evolve. As an industry, we get too hung up on what is and isn’t a Sipp.

Sacha Sadan has been appointed director of corporate governance at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM).

With 17 years of investing experience, Sadan joins from Gartmore, where he was senior UK equity fund manager and co-managed a range of UK equity hedge, retail and institutional funds. He joined Gartmore in 2002.

The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) has appointed Paul Jagger and Museji Takolia to chair its employer panel and member panel respectively.

One of their first responsibilities will be to select other panel members.

The Isle of Man (IoM) has hired an international business director in a bid to bring more businesses onto the island.

Michael Charlton will be tasked with persuading firms to domicile all or part of their businesses to the IoM, which already houses the offshore arms of a number of the UK’s largest insurers, handling overseas pension schemes, qualified recognised overseas pension schemes and employer-funded retirement benefit schemes.