News

• 13 February 2019

  Cardano Group agrees to acquire NOW: Pensions

  Cardano Group agrees acquisition of leading auto-enrolment provider NOW: Pensions The combined business creates a full service growth platform in UK pensions Group assets under management to exceed £25 billion The Cardano Group (‘Cardano’), the pensions risk and investment management specialist, has today agreed to acquire 100% of workplace pension provider NOW: Pensions Ltd. (‘NOW: Pensions’), […] More

• 5 February 2019

  Pension Protection Fund Levy Certification 2019/20 – deadline approaches

  The deadline is approaching for trustees and sponsors to prepare for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levies and the associated certification of contingent assets in order to help manage these. Some trustees will be looking to certify group company guarantees (“Type A” contingent assets), whilst others may be seeking to value asset backed contribution (“ABC”) […] More

• 28 January 2019

  Our industry survey finds that Superfunds will become a commonplace solution for some DB schemes

  Our DB consolidation survey found that over half of pensions professionals believe Superfunds will become a commonplace solution for certain UK DB schemes. Pensions professionals also believe that Superfund regulation should focus on relative covenant strength. On the survey findings, Darren Redmayne, CEO of Lincoln Pensions, said: “Our inaugural DB consolidation survey reveals unsurprisingly that the security of […] More

• 19 December 2018

  We turned 10 in 2018! We look ahead to possible developments in the next decade…

  This year we turned 10! And to celebrate reaching our 10 year milestone, we decided to produce a short film. A decade of seeking to deliver safer financial futures inspired us to reflect on how much the pensions industry has changed over that time; and how much we’ve achieved. It also seemed to be the right moment to look 10 […] More

• 13 December 2018

  Superfunds are go! (…or are they?) – What’s your view?

  On 7 December 2018, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) launched a consultation seeking views on the new legislative framework for the authorisation and regulation of defined benefit (DB) ‘superfunds’. The DWP and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) have publicly highlighted the potential advantages of superfunds. Whilst this option may ultimately not be right for […] More

• 11 December 2018

  Brexit contingency planning – a guide for trustees

  With the clock ticking until the UK departs from the EU, we are supporting a growing number of our clients with differing degrees of Brexit contingency planning. As with all aspects of risk management, what sponsors and schemes will do is necessarily very ‘scheme specific’ and after more than two years of continued news flow […] More

• 10 October 2018

  Worry Index released: our analysis of the overall health of FTSE 100 and FTSE 350 retail DB schemes

  Jointly with Cardano, we have released our latest Worry Index research which looks at the level of risk in FTSE 100 defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in a stress scenario. This year we also looked at FTSE 350 retailers. The Worry Index, provides a single measure of the overall safety (or not) of DB pension schemes. It is […] More

• 10 September 2018

  DB pension scheme corporate disclosures continue to be inadequate

  Our study ‘Give us a clue 2’, shows that DB pension scheme corporate disclosures in FTSE 350 companies, continue to be inadequate. We carried out a similar study in 2016. Since then there have been significant improvements but there are areas of concern. Key findings of our study: one fifth of companies with a DB scheme still do not […] More

• 7 September 2018

  Scenario Analysis: an essential tool for DB pension schemes

  Adopting Integrated Risk Management in your scheme’s decision making processes can be a difficult task, especially when it comes to allowing for your scheme’s single biggest risk concentration: its covenant. Below we illustrate how scenario thinking can be used to tackle this problem, and how it can help to shape a holistic risk management strategy. […] More

• 28 August 2018

  Richard Farr talks about enhancing pension disclosures in light of recent corporate failures

  There have been numerous reports in the press about accounting scandals where the public perception of companies has not been a true and fair reflection of their financial position and leading to corporate failure. Richard Farr, Managing Director at Lincoln Pensions talks about the issue of the quality of audits in the context of DB pension schemes and suggests pertinent […] More