United Kingdom

UK - Trustees must liaise with sponsoring employers on financial planning for their pension schemes or risk having to disinvest assets, Jardine Lloyd Thompson warns.

UK - Accountancy firm Thomas May & Co has teamed up with Beckett Financial Services to offer its clients investment, pensions and financial planning advice.

UK - The Co-operative Insurance Society has called on institutional investors to open up their voting records to public scrutiny.

NETHERLANDS/UK - Dutch financial services giant Aegon has become one of the top 10 independent financial advisory (IFA) distributors in the UK following the acquisition of Elliott Bayley Company for an undisclosed sum.

UK - Consultants are split over the viability of a popular US-style DC plan partly based on company profit.

UK - The Bank of England has restarted contributions of 10% into its £1.85bn pension fund after revealing a deficit of £205m.

UK - Former NAPF investment committee chairman Alan Rubenstein launched a blistering attack on the Higgs report and dismissed it as "irrelevant".

UK - Annual returns on property improved to 10.1%, the latest Insignia Richard Ellis Monthly Index shows.

UK - A flood of scheme closures are inevitable because the government is ignoring the pensions crisis, OPAS has warned.

UK - IFA software manufacturer Synaptic Systems has redesigned and upgraded its website.