Dáil Drawdown - NPRF

In this installment of Dáil Drawdown, Deputy Michael McGrath asks the Minister for Finance for more information on the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

Source:www.oireachtas.ie

Dáil Drawdown - Drawdown of Pension Funds

Source: www.oireachtas.ie

A third of workers plan to rely solely on a state pension

In a recent survey conducted by Amarach Research, it was found that a third of workers plan to rely solely on a state pension, the Irish Independent reported today.

The state pension currently stands at just under €12,000 per annum which is about one third of the average wage (€35,849, CSO 2011). These figures mean that many people will find it almost impossible to keep up their current standard of living if they rely solely on the state. In a recent report by the IAPF it was found that there was a large gap between what people expect from the state pension and what they will receive in reality. This gap is likely to get wider.

The survey, conducted with 1,000 adults shows that only 4 out of 10 people plan to use a combination of the state pension and private retirement income. It was also found that three-quarters of people do not know how much they are paying in annual pension charges and just one in 10 shop around for pension products (Independent.ie).

The importance of private pension provision is unquestionable, relying solely on the state pension will not ensure long term financial security for most.

You can read the full article here.


Melanie Farrell
Independent Trustee Company

A diamond is forever, but what about your pension?

Any employers who are currently acting as trustee on their group pension scheme and are querying the value of appointing an independent trustee may be interested in reading the article by Tim Healy in the Independent - Ex- De Beers pension fund members are owed €50m, court hears.

This case outlines very clearly the inherent conflict of the employer trustee, particularly in a wind up situation. One of the main duties of a trustee is to act in the members best interest. It can be very difficult for a member trustee, who is employed by the company, or a company trustee who has an allegiance to the employer to separate out these roles and only act with only the members interest in mind. As can be seen in this case to do otherwise can leave the trustees open to legal action by the members. The members claim in this case is thought to be valued at €40-50 million. By appointing an independent trustee you can avoid this potential conflict.

Niamh Quirke

Technical Associate

Independent Trustee Limited

Dáil Drawdown

Dáil Drawdown is a new edition to our blog and brings you recent pension news straight from the Dáil Chamber. Here is our first installment.

Source: www.oireachtas.ie

We asked a 1000 people…

As an industry we know that:

• the current ratio of people working versus those in retirement will half over the next two decades,
• the pending pension burden is unlikely to be absorbed by the state,
• approximately 50% of people working in Ireland do not have a pension and
• life and pension sales according to the IIF (Irish Insurance Federation) 2012 annual report has fallen to “barely 40% of their 2007 peak”.

Unsurprisingly, pensions coverage is being debated ad nausem by the entire pensions industry. However, amongst all the various discussion, debates and column inches the view of the Irish public is often overlooked.

As a result of this, Independent Trustee Company commissioned a RED C survey to investigate why people are reluctant to invest in pensions. We surveyed over 1000 people with some interesting results;

Findings

• Whilst affordability is an issue, it is not the overriding problem, poor performance and access are also a major cause of concern.
• ‘A fear of losing money’ and ‘affordability’ were found to be the main concerns for female respondents.
• Male respondents were more likely to mention ‘retirement being too far off ‘ and ‘an overall lack of trust’ than their female counterparts.
• Middle-aged respondents were most likely to mention ‘a fear of losing some or all of the money’.
• ‘Affordability’ was most likely to be mentioned by people aged 35-54 years.
• Those over 65 years of age; and younger adults were most likely to say that ‘pensions are too complicated’.

We are still digesting these results but it is clear that the lack of pension investment cannot be dismissed as a problem caused by “the economy”. We believe these results have highlighted the need for transparent and secure pension products. Some industry “experts” would lead you to believe that we need to educate the public; this is rubbish, the industry needs to provide people with a product that is designed with them as the consumer in mind and not the other way around!

Michael Keyes

Sales & Marketing Director

How a Rolls Royce benefit has become a "clapped out banger”

The quickening end to Defined Benefit Pension Arrangements

New statutory requirements relating to funding defined benefit schemes have recently become law with the coming into force on 1st May of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012. The new rules set down will inevitably lead to an increase in the wind-up of defined benefit pension structures. This is due, among other things, to the new requirement for a “risk reserve” (additional funding) to be set aside to act as a buffer against further economic turmoil. These new measures are of course going to add further pressure on company balance sheets and indeed we have already seen in the past week AIB and Independent News and Media announce their intention to shut down their company defined benefit schemes.

Defined Benefit schemes have long been considered the Rolls Royce of pension structures offering a guaranteed pension for life based on an employee’s final salary. However, in recent years these pension schemes have been under severe pressure due to volatile asset values and increasing liabilities which have been caused by bad investment performance, low German bond yields and increasing life expectancy. These issues coupled with a difficult business environment, increasing taxation and regulation, and a poor economic outlook have caused employers to consider restructuring their company pension arrangements. The new funding rules introduced by the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012 will now force employers to make decisions (as early as this December) they had been hoping to avoid with such decisions having an immediate impact on company employees.

Take an employee who has been a member of her company’s defined benefit pension for the past fourteen years. She has been contributing 6% of her gross salary every year of her employment with a matching contribution by the employer, but is still sixteen years from her retirement age. Unbeknownst to her, much of the contributions she has being paying in to the scheme have been used to pay the pensions of the retiring employees of her company. Over the past 14 years, she and her employer have each contributed approximately €42,000 to the scheme and she believed that she had amassed a fund of €84,000+ allowing for investment growth and charges. Her company have now decided to wind up the defined benefit scheme and transfer her benefits to a defined contribution arrangement. It is at this point she realises that not only does she have less in her pension than she originally thought she actually has less than her own contributions. One of the main reasons for this is the legislation governing defined benefits pensions require the scheme trustees to give 100% priority to retired members so some of the money she thought she was saving for herself actually went to people she’s probably never met (unless she attends the company’s annual retirement do). In essence her Rolls Royce benefit has become a clapped out banger.

So what are a member employees options now and what can they expect from their employer? All employers are required by law to ensure their company employees have some access to a pension arrangement so it cannot be a case of walking away from responsibilities. Companies will have to consider restructuring their pension offering which will involve establishing some type of defined contribution structure. Employers and employees are increasingly looking at other pension arrangement options such as one member pension trusts or Personal Retirement Saving Accounts (PRSAs) to avoid the risks of underfunding and to bring some sense of equity, fairness and transparency to their pension provision which they do not perceive as being possible under the defined benefit structure. These structures also allow an individual and employer to control the cost of pension provision.

The realisation that defined benefit is not a guarantee of benefits at retirement will be an unwelcome message for most employees, but it is better they know now rather than at the point of retirement when their options are restricted. The financial implications of such changes to their pension arrangements will be specific to each employee. Some of the differences include different methods of calculating tax free cash lump sums, making individual investment decisions if the employee wants to and decisions on what can be done with their retirement fund at retirement, such as reinvesting in an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) or deciding when or what type of pension to buy.

The access to the ARF regime after retirement has been significantly widened recently for members of defined contribution pension arrangements. The ARF option allows someone who has retired to pass a capital sum to his or her family after their death. However, this option is not available to retired members of defined benefit schemes.  After retirement, the majority of members of defined benefit schemes are limited to taking an annuity which can prove to be expensive and inefficient for estate planning purposes. 

The switch of decision making and responsibility for funding to provide sufficient benefits for employers to employees has been occurring gradually, but the new funding rules for defined benefit pensions under the Social Welfare and Pensions Act will accelerate the change. This presents an opportunity to create flexible pension arrangements that will allow employers and employees fund for their retirement while giving control of how these are funded and drawn down to the employee.

Paul Gilmer
Solicitor
ITC Consulting