Towers Watson has developed an online solution that dramatically cuts the cost and time involved in undertaking member-nominated trustee (MNT) elections.
Companies that completed acquisitions or mergers during the second quarter of 2010 continued to outperform the market, beating the MSCI World Index (the Index) by 3.1 percentage points, according to the latest Towers Watson Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor, the only M&A study to track the performance of global deals.
The Government’s proposed annuity reforms would allow future pensioners to seek better investment returns if they are prepared to risk outliving their money, says Towers Watson. However, according to firm, the eventual significance of the proposal to allow pensioners to access more of their money early on in retirement will depend on the size of the lifetime income that they first need to secure.
Alternative assets under management on behalf of pension funds by the world’s largest alternative investment managers remained unchanged in 2009 compared to the year before at US$817bn, according to global research produced by Towers Watson in conjunction with the Financial Times.
Today’s European Commission (EC) Green Paper holds significant promise of furthering the development of cross-border pension schemes according to global professional services company Towers Watson.
The Budget announcement that public sector pensions and second-tier State Pensions will rise with CPI rather than RPI inflation from April 2011 means pensioners will get significantly less than they had expected, according to Towers Watson.
The terms of reference for the review into automatic enrolment risk creating some strange incentives for employers and individuals, according to Towers Watson.
The Government’s review of the State Pension Age could see it rise above 70 by the middle of the century, according to Towers Watson. Documents published today may also open the door to a more dramatic overnight change than has so far been expected.
Global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) has sold VIPitech - an actuarial and financial modelling software unit - to Algorithmics in accordance with commitments it made to the European Commission (EC). The sale of VIPitech was a condition to the EC's clearance of the merger between Watson Wyatt and Towers Perrin.
Pension tax changes announced today could lead to an annual tax charge of over £1,000 for a long-serving final salary scheme member earning £60,000, Towers Watson says – depending on how the policy is developed.
If company culture and manager performance is any guide then Brazil and Portugal will contest the World Cup Final on July 11 according to analysis from Towers Watson.
A statement from the Pensions Regulator indicates that it will not routinely seek to scupper employers’ plans to reduce pension risks by giving members choices, according to Towers Watson.
Recent actions of European policymakers have temporarily reassured markets and only gained them sufficient time to introduce necessary policy measures and consolidate the weak financial outlook according to a Towers Watson report.
Despite a bad month for stock markets, UK companies’ pension deficits actually shrunk by £7 billion during May, according to Towers Watson. This is because the future rates of inflation that markets anticipate are lower at the end of the month than they were at the start, reducing the expected cost of inflation-linked pension payments.
The inclusion of a Pensions Bill in the Queen’s Speech could be the first step towards a much faster rise in the State Pension Age, according to Towers Watson.
Defined contribution (DC) pensions require significant re-engineering if they are to better serve millions of individuals worldwide who were exposed to its failings during the financial crisis according to a Towers Watson publication.
Steve Webb, the new Minister of State for Pensions, is likely to query the way his department is implementing major pension reforms, according to Towers Watson. However, some of the decisions he has previously objected to have their roots in primary legislation with cross-party support so cannot be changed quickly and easily.
QIS5, a comprehensive test of the new Solvency II regime, is scheduled between August and November this year and represents one of the last opportunities for the insurance industry to influence the design and calibration of the new regulatory regime.
Retail Price Inflation was 5.3% in the 12 months to April 2010, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics today. Towers Watson says this is the first time it has broken through the 5% ceiling which applies to inflation-linked increases to defined benefit pensions earned between 1997 and 2005.
The policy agreement published by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats today contains a number of pension reforms. Towers Watson says the commitment to review the State Pension Age is more significant than bringing forward the earnings link for the Basic State Pension by another year, that higher rate tax relief appears safe at least for now, and that the review of public sector pensions should focus on what is the most cost-effective way of rewarding public sector employees.
Institutional investors that have diversified their assets away from developed market equities during the past five to ten years will have made the case for diversification as almost every other asset class outperformed these markets during this period, according to an article in Towers Watson’s Global Investment Matters publication. In the article, entitled Is diversification dead?, the firm asserts that the risk of an equity-focused strategy remains high, especially given ongoing economic uncertainty and recommends that investors should seek both existing and new market opportunities to build more diversified portfolios.
Employees expect they will have to take more personal responsibility for their pensions over the coming years as the recession puts significant dents in many peoples’ retirement plans, according to research by global professional services company Towers Watson.
Companies that completed deals during the first quarter of 2010 outperformed the market, according to the latest Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor.
The Liberal Democrat manifesto, published yesterday, says the party favours “giving tax relief on pensions only at the basic rate so that everyone gets the same tax relief on their pension contributions”.
People retiring in future are on average expected to receive their state pensions for almost two years longer than was expected when the current timetable for increasing the State Pension Age was agreed, according to Towers Watson's analysis of official population projections.
Labour’s manifesto commitment to increase the Basic State Pension in line with earnings from 2012 removes the opportunity to save around £2bn a year by the end of the next Parliament and around £4bn a year in the long term by delaying it to 2015, according to Towers Watson.
The first annual fall in contributions to funded pension schemes to be recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reflects funding plans for defined benefit schemes that were agreed in relatively benign circumstances and could quickly be reversed, according to Towers Watson.
UK, April 6, 2010 – Draft legislation which is expected to be fast-tracked through parliament this week does not require any inflation-linked uprating of the income levels at which higher earners will be taxed on pension contributions from next April.
Human Resources and its editor Sian Harrington both won prizes at the 2010 Towers Watson Awards for Excellence in HR Journalism.
The Government has revealed that it expects the 2% charge levied on contributions to the new National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme to last until around 2030.
The Chancellor’s announcement today on the default retirement age suggests that nothing has yet been ruled in or out but demographic pressures make reform look likely, according to Towers Watson.
HM Treasury has trebled its estimate of the one-off costs that pension schemes, employers and individuals will incur as a result of the tax on higher earners’ pension contributions that it is introducing from 2011, according to Towers Watson.
Unfunded pension promises made to past and present UK public sector workers now amount to almost £1.2 trillion, according to Towers Watson. Including these liabilities would more than double the new estimate of the national debt to be revealed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Wednesday’s Budget.
New proposals on how Pension Protection Fund levies should be calculated from 2012 would lead to big increases in the levies charged to some employers and big decreases in the levies charged to others, according to Towers Watson.
The worst of the recession may be over, but its impact on the workforce and employment looks to be deep and long-lasting, according to the results of new research from Towers Watson.
The Government’s announcement on charging structures in the new National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) means that people saving into the scheme early on will meet the set-up costs and people enrolled in future will only have to pay for ongoing running costs.
As the use of predictive modeling among insurance companies becomes increasingly prevalent, the combination of sophisticated actuarial expertise and advanced predictive modeling software to determine optimum pricing and risk selection strategies, will help insurers realize a competitive advantage.
The value of variable annuity sales fell nine per cent to £1.05 billion in 2009 compared with 2008 while the number of policies rose marginally during the same period according to research by consultants Towers Watson. According to the firm, the value of variable annuity sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 was £188.4 million, up 32 per cent from third quarter sales of £143.1 million. In addition it said the size of the variable annuity market has almost doubled since 2007 when the research started.
Sales of enhanced annuities in the UK rose to £1.79 billion last year, an increase of 24 per cent on 2008, according to research by consultants Towers Watson. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 reached record levels of £478.8 million, significantly up from third quarter sales of £415.8 million. According to the firm, the market share of enhanced annuity sales, as a percentage of total pensions annuity sales, has more than doubled since 2001 when the research started.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics show a continuing decline in the proportion of private sector employees saving in workplace pensions, according to Towers Watson. They also underline the ongoing shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension provision.
The number of bond mandates awarded by global professional services company Towers Watson’s (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) clients worldwide in 2009 increased by over 50% from 2008, which was already over 20% higher than the year before. The most significant increase in demand was for U.S. bonds, with twice the number of selections in 2009 as in 2008.
Insurers should avoid planning paralysis and an overreliance on recruitment if they are to convince the Financial Services Authority (FSA) that they are making progress towards Solvency II compliance, warns global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW).
Despite the economic downturn, the average maximum contribution that large employers are making to defined contribution (DC) pensions is increasing, according to a survey of FTSE 100 companies by Towers Watson.
The Prime Minister’s choice of general election date will affect when the Basic State Pension must be linked to earnings, according to Towers Watson.
Fund managers are confident that higher equity returns and positive, albeit modest, economic growth will manifest a continued global recovery, according to a survey conducted by global professional services firm Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW).
Towers Watson has appointed Jason Pope as a client manager in its Technology and Administration Solutions Practice.
Towers Watson welcomes the proposals to improve the governance of Defined Contribution (DC) schemes contained in an industry consultation document published by the joint Government-industry Investment Governance Group (IGG).
The liability risk-hedging market in the UK passed the £40 billion mark for the first time in 2009, topping the previous high of £35 billion set in 2007 according to Towers Watson estimates.
Global Professional Services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) has recruited Emma Hunt from Mercer Investment Consulting where she was a principal heading up the responsible investment (RI) and active ownership areas in Europe.
The Department for Work and Pensions has today published a series of regulations on the workplace pension reforms that are being introduced from 2012. A response to its recent consultation and a regulatory impact assessment for the new regulations has also been published.
Employers assumed by the Pension Protection Fund to have least chance of going bust should brace themselves for higher PPF levies in 2011, according to Towers Watson.
Global institutional pension fund assets in the 13 major markets increased by 15% during 2009, from US$20 trillion to over US$23 trillion, according to Towers Watson’s Global Pension Assets Study released today.
Towers Watson has appointed David Holding and Gregory Jackson as investment consultants to its Investment teams in the UK.
Towers Watson has turned positive about the strategic case for ‘opportunistic’ real estate investing, as part of a diversified long-term real estate strategy, but warns the associated fees for many vehicles are too high.
Almost 1,200 defined benefit schemes closed to existing members between 2000 and 2008, according to figures published by the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund this morning. One in five defined benefit schemes had closed to future accrual by March 2009.
The Department for Work and Pensions has today published a series of regulations on the workplace pension reforms that are being introduced from 2012. A response to its recent consultation and a regulatory impact assessment for the new regulations has also been published.
Officially, the Government is still collecting evidence for its review of default retirement ages but an interview with Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons, in today’s Daily Mail hints that they may soon be abolished.
Towers Watson & Co. announced today the completion of the merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt. The transaction to form Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company, was announced on June 28, 2009. Watson Wyatt Chief Executive Officer John Haley will serve as Towers Watson’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Towers Perrin Chief Executive Officer Mark Mactas will serve as Deputy Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer.
Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: WW), both leading global consulting firms, announced that at their respective special meetings of shareholders, each held earlier today, their shareholders adopted the merger agreement pursuant to which the companies will combine their businesses.
Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: WW), both leading global consulting firms, today announced that they have been granted conditional clearance from the European Commission to allow the Parties to proceed with their merger to form Towers Watson & Co. U.S. antitrust authorities previously cleared the transaction.
Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: WW) today announced that Jupiter Saturn Holding Company (“Jupiter Saturn”), the new entity formed as part of the merger process between Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt, filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: WW) today announced that their respective Boards of Directors have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt will combine in a merger of equals to form a new, publicly listed company called Towers Watson & Co.
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