News

AUSTRALIA - Watson Wyatt has appointed Hugh Dougherty as head of manager research and Michael Blayney as head of the Portfolio Construction Group (PCG) in Australia.

UK - The National Association of Pensions Funds (NAPF) has found many employers are unprepared for the introduction of Personal Accounts in 2012.

US - The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Congress and employers will need to work together to enable the much-needed implementation of phased retirement programmes, a senior consultant has claimed.

SCHEMES threatened with insurance style funding requirements under Solvency II proposals have been given a reprieve, Watson Wyatt says.

US - Reducing risk has overtaken increasing returns on assets as the greatest concern for pension scheme executives, a study by Towers Perrin has found.

EUROPE - A consultation paper published last week by the European Commission could represent a reprieve for UK companies sponsoring defined benefit (DB) schemes, to which insurance-style funding requirements might be applied, said Watson Wyatt.

The Pensions Management Institute autumn conference - Pensions, when the going gets tough - will take place on September 23.

The Pension Protection Fund has appointed Lehman Brothers International, BlackRock Investment Management and Goldman Sachs International to provide it with transition management services.

Legal & General is set to run another pilot study into the pricing structure of the individual annuity market.

HBOS has seen its pension fund deficit more than double over the last six months, its annual report and interim results reveal.