Sessional Webinar: To the end game and beyond

A recording of this webinar is available to watch on the IFoA's Virtual Learning Environment  (VLE). Find out more.

This sessional meeting will discuss the working party's paper that was recently published. Running off the £2 trillion of UK corporate sector defined benefit liabilities in an efficient and effective fashion is the biggest challenge facing the UK pensions industry. Trustees and sponsors overseeing those schemes need to be clear on their target end-state and the associated journey plan – but too few have well articulated and robust plans.

Determining the target end-state requires input from multiple disciplines and an ability to work collaboratively across different professional advisers. This paper sets out issues trustees, sponsors and their advisers can consider when addressing whether their target end state should be low-dependency, buyout or transfer to a superfund. Member outcomes analysis is introduced as a central tool through which to differentiate between alternative target end-states. A five step methodology is set out for deriving an optimal target end-state and associated journey plan.

Also considered are the specific factors impacting stressed schemes – increasingly important to trustee boards when considering their Plan B should their sponsor or scheme ever become stressed.

The paper ends with specific recommendations for the actuarial profession and The Pensions Regulator to take forward.