Aviva Investors’ fully ESG-integrated ‘My Future Focus’ investment strategy has been adopted by the Aviva Master Trust as its standard default.

Another week-on-week increase in the number of deaths with Covid-19 mentioned on the death certificate has brought total excess deaths since the beginning of the second wave to 5,000.

Here it is, our monthly digest of the most important pension articles Professional Pensions has written and published over the last month, along with some contextual notes.

The Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) has officially launched a working group focused on dismantling the “overly complex and archaic” barriers to trustee voting.

Phoenix Group will launch an ESG defined contribution (DC) default solution for pension fund clients of its Standard Life Assurance business and their scheme members.

More than four in five employers oppose the implementation of multiple pensions dashboards and any that do not include state pensions, the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) says.

The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has announced global consultant Deloitte as its expert knowledge provider for data.

The government has confirmed the current interim chairwoman of The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO), Caroline Rookes, will continue the role in a permanent capacity.

This week’s top stories included further support for an overhaul of the pension tax regime, while the Treasury confirmed the Retail Prices Index will be reformed by 2030.

The UK’s cumulative excess deaths figure for 2020 is higher now than at the previous peak of 64,600 recorded during the first wave of Covid-19, the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) says.