Adair Turner has hit out against criticisms that his proposal for a universal pension system, the NPSS, will damage pension saving and has asked to know what his critics are doing to solve the problem.

David Laws sets out his recommendations for pension reform as a response to last month’s Budget, backing the NPSS, a rise in retirement age and government incentives to encourage people to save for the future

Lord Turner has failed to silence his critics with the publication of the Pensions Commission’s final report, as industry experts warned parts of the state pension reform and the creation of the National Pensions Savings Scheme (NPSS) are still unpalatable.

Cass Business School has launched the world’s first postgraduate masters programme aimed at creating individuals capable of solving the growing global pensions problem.

Standard Life has confirmed the timetable for its planned demutualisation and has started sending out information and voting packs to all of its policyholders.

Further public sector strikes, scheduled for the end of April, have been suspended following the announcement that further talks will be taking place between the unions and the Local Government Association.

An alliance of professional bodies, including the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), has called for “hasty” Budget changes to the taxation of trusts to be postponed until proper consultation has taken place.

Lifetime Group, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwich Union (NU), is rebranding this month. The company will be known as Lifetime from Norwich Union and will adopt its owners corporate colours.

Studies clearly demonstrate that communication greatly improves engagement of employees with pensions schemes.

Friends Provident is adding three new features to its defined contribution group pension websites for scheme members, a retirement planning tool, an investment planner and a financial education service.

The adoption of e-commerce within the life and pensions industry continues apace, according to the latest Focus Quotient report.

The general rule of thumb in pensions advice is that if a client has access to an occupational scheme, they should opt for that before all else. However, that may not always be in the individual’s best interests.

Paternoster, the new defined benefit (DB) buyout company founded by former Prudential UK boss, Mark Wood, will offer a number of innovations when it opens for business later this year, including an option on mortality risk.

Have you been keeping up to date with the Trustee Masterclass series produced as a joint initiative between PM’s sister title, Pensions Week, and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM)?

I hear that the boffins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT to you and me) have recently developed an emotion sensor that can detect boredom. That might not sound like it’s up there with the all-time great inventions to you, but to someone like me who has to speak so often at pension conferences this could be just what we’ve been waiting for.

The advantages of starting pension saving early may be passing many people by as they struggle to deal with existing debts and a limited disposable income.

Due to an oversight, Axa Investment Managers was omitted from the tables in last month’s Pensions Management Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) Survey tables.

Congratulations to Derek Jones of The PAL Partnership, Dave Brendish from Scottish Equitable, Sheila Heeks of Campden Chorleywood Food Research Association, Judy Johnson from Musgrave Budgens-Londis, and Karen Aveyard of Hiscox, who have all won a copy of Andrew Freeman’s All you need to know about being a pension fund trustee.

The Treasury has acted “shabbily” and treated the industry and investors with “scant regard” by announcing last minute taxation on unquoted shares in self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), according to Suffolk Life.

Financial advisers will have been incredibly busy in the run up to A-day. Much work has been done to ensure clients are best placed to take advantage of the new regime. So now that A-day has been and gone, should we all sit back and relax for a few months?

Legal & General has launched a new self- invested personal pension, aimed at the mass affluent sector and offering an extensive range of more than 250 insured funds.

Final regulations to combat age discrimination have been put before Parliament and will come into force on October 1 2006. The original draft regulations contained wide-ranging exemptions for occupational pension schemes, but no mention of contract-based schemes (personal pensions/stakeholders).

This month the winners of the PM Provider Awards 2006 will be announced at a swanky London hotel among the great and the good of the UK pensions industry

While you were sitting on your decking sucking on an icy cold G&T over the last bank holiday weekend, you may have fleetingly thought: “It’s nearly summer, so I’ll have to get my PM Awards entry off soon.”

Have you survived A-day? Your DB scheme probably hasn’t. Lesley Carline argues that what used to be a straight choice between DB and DC has switched to one between the two types of defined contribution

A new tax, designed to prevent families from disposing of valuable assets while retaining use of them, will catch unmarried couples who have already entered into some form of loan or gift agreement over property

Hamid Nawaz-Khan tells Gregor Watt what it takes to leave the corporate life behind and enjoy the benefits of becoming your own boss – even if it does mean sorting out your own telephone problems

Liability benchmarks can discourage bond managers from taking an active stance, but a skilled manager should find moving to LDI easy, says Andrew Chorlton

PM asks Stephen Haddrill, director-general of the Assocation of British Insurers, for his views on reform in the aftermath of the Turner report and the future of pensions post-simplification

Index tracking is a simple, cost-effective fund management strategy, but has its popularity already peaked? Ruth Emery looks at the services companies are offering this year and how they have evolved

In the past 10 years, index fund management has changed beyond recognition. Ian Richards looks at the risks and strategies involved in this growth area

Quality and high standards are the watchwords of the Swiss, and their pension system is no different, but is it a sustainable structure that has been built to withstand issues of reform, asks Gregor Watt

Our panel of experts debate manager skill, what it is, where you find it and how to know when you’ve lost it

We all like to think we are masters of our own destiny, regardless of the degree of control we wield over our lives. It is because of control that the administration function has often remained within the plan sponsor.

1. Some of the benefits of outsourcing include: risk reduction, especially around the loss of staff and business resilience for smaller schemes; having experts available to cover work peaks; reducing internal headcount; pooled access to technical, regulatory and compliance expertise; and removing the need to maintain systems. Cost is a factor, but more from the aspect of ensuring certainty around costs and that the service delivers value for money. If cost is the only factor, the service provided is less likely to meet the needs of the various stakeholders.
2. L&P providers who manage their technology platforms best are already taking advantage of their leading position. Client retention is one of the most significant issues facing the L&P market and those who can offer longstanding clients the same functionality and cost structure as their new clients are better placed to retain business.
   Where long-standing clients are getting second-rate service due to poor systems, they are more likely to set up a new plan with a new provider. Offshoring does not solve problems on its own, but it can help manage costs.
3. With so many providers available, a scheme needs to consider the size of provider, location of offices, and range of services it is looking for. Once the selection process is underway, it is the quality of the people, processes and systems that the provider has which helps form the decision. The final factor, and a not insignificant one, is the cultural fit between the scheme and the provider at both a personal and corporate level.
4. The RSPA campaign ensured a focus from the industry on the quality of service being provided to pension schemes and their members. This was long overdue and the result of the recent member survey undertaken by RSPA indicates that quality of service has improved.
   Schemes and providers should look to obtain more feedback from scheme members. Providing a high quality, cost-effective service will go a long way towards ensuring they are satisfied, as well as helping to meet the needs of the trustees and sponsoring companies, who also have to play their part.

1. The primary benefits of outsourcing are access to a specialist provider who will deliver a high quality service and where the service remains a core part of the supplier’s offering. Clients need certainty their provider will be around in years to come and will continue to invest in their business. Price should not be the only consideration.
   The chosen outsourcer can impact a firm’s customer service record, and therefore it is important to be satisfied the outsourcer is capable, competent and focused on the same outcomes as the original firm would have been if it continued to deliver the service.
2. Data is central to everything. While it remains an issue, providers will not be able to maximise the impact that technology can have on efficient service delivery. As demand from consumers changes, providers need to be able to respond rapidly to the changing environment. Those who succeed will be those who can successfully address the legacy data issues in conjunction with their clients.
   Offshoring is a solution, however, there is a high degree of resistance to the concept, from a business continuity and business risk perspective.
3. Schemes need to identify what their goals and criteria are, what are they seeking to achieve and why these are important. From there, they can assess options and find a provider who is best able to match their requirements.
4. Any initiative to raise standards has to be applauded. The question might be better directed at the users of the service as only they can judge whether the effort and developments have made any difference to them as a consumer.

1. There are four main drivers behind outsourcing: improvement of customer service; risk reduction; time management; and cost. These need to be balanced, and the balance point will differ from client to client. Failure to get the balance right can result in expectations not being met, and the exercise not being judged a success. Cost is clearly an important factor, but the emphasis should be on value.
   All this implies an investment of time by the client initially, but since trustees cannot outsource their responsibilities, only the service, some ongoing involvement is also essential.
2. A key way of ensuring clean data is to utilise the internet, giving members access to their details on your system 24/7. This increases the rate of review by members, and makes data as transparent as payroll information. Providers who utilise this technology generally get their data problems sorted, and are generally more successful than those who do not.
   Offshoring should be part of a structured operation. Routine, high volume operations can be dealt with at lower cost offshore, while the added value operations requiring detailed technical knowledge are still dealt with most effectively in the home country.
3. Steps to successful outsourcing: assess what is not working; consider other areas that ideally could be improved; decide which of those areas can realistically be added to the contract coverage; agree a realistic timeframe for implementation of the new regime; agree a budget based on a clear understanding of the service to be provided.
   In selecting an appropriate provider, look for an administrator: with referenceable clients of similar size to your scheme; where administration is a core part of their strategy; that invests in technology – current and future plans; that wins assignments, to demonstrate capability to fulfil their sales promises.
4. As a forum for practitioners to share ideas and consider issues facing pensions administration, it has raised awareness of issues amongst senior administration professionals.
   It has produced good reference information should administrators require it to do their day-to-day jobs, but knowledge of the group and its output by people at that level is scarce, and so it is unlikely this information is widely utilised.
   As a body, it has no remit to enforce any qualifying standards other than to recommend best practice, so its contribution and influence is always likely to be limited.

1. Naturally trustees will want to demonstrate value for money. The primary benefits of outsourcing need to go beyond looking at cost in isolation. Benefits of outsourcing include:
   - reduced management involvement for sponsoring company;
   - access to a pool of technical expertise;
   - easier to maintain service levels during fluctuations in workload;
   - less vulnerability to staff absences/departures
   - indemnity against error and fraud;
   - better access to state of the art pensions IT systems (due to economies of scale);
   - services evolve in line with best practice;
   - easier to cope with changes in legislation.
2. Increasing web-enabled self-service and the advent of true straight-through processing between administration providers and investment managers demands accuracy of data. It is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have. Those providers who do not resolve their data issues will be left behind.
   Providers with one system utilised across their entire client base and able to roll out application software upgrades and developments unilaterally are at a distinct advantage.
3. The first step is to compile a wish list, helping to focus on key requirements. These can then be conveyed to the third-party administrators (TPA), leading to ‘best fit’. In future, it also enables the scheme to assess how successful the TPA has been in delivering against these criteria.
   Schemes should look for an administrator with an infrastructure that minimises risk while maximising opportunity and who can demonstrate:
   - leading edge systems development;
   - high levels of automation and straight-through processing;
   - innovation;
   - formalised approach to risk management;
   - pan-European capabilities.
4. A key objective of the campaign is to improve the standard of service delivered to pension scheme members. There has been valuable work completed on guidance notes, case studies, tools and checklists, in support of this objective.
   The RSPA online survey developed for scheme members to complete is an industry first and Watson Wyatt is proud to be one of the sponsors. The results will be the real test of what members think about the administration service they receive and will help to shape the future direction of the campaign and promote improvements in the service provided to pension scheme members.

Outsourcing continues to be the way to go because companies can save money and concentrate on their main business – and Ceri Jones discovers there are other advantages

Defined contribution administration would benefit greatly from the improvement in speed and efficiency that the implementation of straight-through processing offers, says Clive Witherington

The Pensions Commission has predicted that defined contribution schemes will dominate private sector pensions in the future. Kim Gubler discusses raising the standards of pension administration

Jon Tye reviews the single versus multiple provider approach to HR outsourcing and considers whether there is a one-size-fits-all solution

Matthew Craig, editor-in-chief, Pensions Management: Given what’s gone on in the past two years around Sipps and A-day, what are the main concerns at the moment?

Peter Williams answers this month’s questions regarding alternatively secured pension and what advantages it could bring at retirement

How do you make real and consistent risk-adjusted returns in an environment where it is no longer sufficient to beat the benchmark or to simply make real returns unless they are analysed in the context of the risk?

It’s been a long time coming. Marian Hatfield takes a careful look at the impact of A-day among the providers in the life and pensions industry and sees the market contracting

From September it will be possible to study for an MSc in pensions at London’s Cass Business School. David Blake (pictured) and Bernard Casey outline the programme

LDI can be a boon in the light of current legislation, says Mark Samuelson, but it is not necessarily the magic elixir it may appear to be at first sight

In the second part of his journey into ASP, Stuart Bayliss examines the implementation of the government’s policy and wonders if there might not be a catch or two for pensioners over the age of 75

Robert Middleton has been appointed chief executive of Aon Consulting in the UK, taking over from Ron Amy, who will remain chairman of the firm.

Lane, Clark & Peacock has been busy making appointments and a string of promotions in the last month.

Sue Applegarth, managing director of MNPA, has been elected vice president of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI).

Dave Lowe has left GE Life to join Zurich as pensions management director. He will be responsible for the development and management of Zurich’s individual pension business.