Pensions Buzz

Buzz respondents did not have much time for the suggestion that Scotland should have a different state retirement age to the rest of the country.

More than two thirds of Buzz respondents believe the government should set minimum standards for schemes that qualify for use as auto-enrolment vehicles.

This week respondents pinpoint where it all started to go wrong for defined benefit, share concerns over the bulk annuity market, and rubbish the suggestion Scotland should have a lower state pension age.

Pensions Buzz is a weekly survey of the industry. This week respondents say tax relief is the only incentive to get people to save, and explain how administration contracts have to change.

Four out of five respondents believe tax relief in its current form is an effective incentive to save. Many commentators suggested it was the only thing that encouraged people to lock their money away in long-term saving vehicles.

Almost six out of ten respondents thought defined contribution schemes could make better use of alternative assets, while just one in twenty disagreed. But many respondents admitted to being unsure of exactly how schemes could make these funds available...

More than half of Buzz respondents were concerned that service level agreements used to monitor the performance of third-party administrators focused too heavily on response times. But a quarter of contributors were happy with how SLAs were used.

Buzz respondents are far from optimistic that the long hoped for rally in gilt yields will happen this year. Just one in fifty contributors believes yields will rise significantly in 2013 while the majority think they will remain steady.

The majority of contributors said schemes they know of intended to cut their UK equity allocations. Just one in five respondents said this was not the case.

Pensions Buzz is a weekly survey of the industry. This week trustees and professionals react to the latest delay to GMP equalisation, and question whether the younger generation really is ready to save more.