Defined Contribution

Insurance giant Aviva is to make staff across its UK operations contribute to their defined contribution pension fund for the first time.

Aon has announced plans to cut employer contributions to its UK pension by up to half as part of its plan to tackle the recession.

Employers can reap cost savings from pension salary sacrifice in under a year if the employee contributions are in excess of £500,000 per year, Watson Wyatt says.

Employers cannot afford to ignore the costs associated with deferred members of defined contribution schemes who have left the company, Towers Perrin says.

Seven out of 10 pensions trustees do not have total confidence in their scheme retirement process, a HSBC Actuaries and Consultants governance survey reveals.

Bosses must engage with their employees during the auto-enrolment process to prevent people passively falling into occupational provision in 2012, The Pensions Regulator says.

Friends Provident has implemented an industry-wide open market option system in a bid to speed up the payment of transfers to annuity providers.

Setting up an effective default fund investment strategy will be a crucial step in ensuring auto-enrolment works for everyone, the Investment Management Association says.

In another of PP's bi-monthly interviews with scheme managers, Sebastian Cheek speaks to Telegraph Pension Scheme pensions manager James Churcher

Mark Baker of Pinsent Masons suggests the economic turmoil has given scheme-specific valuations an extra level of complication, forcing trustees and companies to become more flexible than ever in these trying times