In a recent article in the Telegraph by Jon Swaine, he was basically reporting on the likely demise of private sector Final Salary pension schemes.
It mentions the fact that 90% of public sector schemes are Final Salary compared with 11% in the private sector – Dr Ros Altmann, a former Government pension adviser, warns this could get worse and that private sector Final Salary schemes could disappear altogether.
I agree with her that the problem has been building over a period of time. We now have more regulatory scrutiny than ever before, couple this with significant reduction in investment returns and you start to hit big problems for scheme trustees and employers who run these schemes.
We are finding huge increases not only in the actual cost of running such pension schemes but also the liabilities of the trustees who have the responsibility to do so. Any trustee would be worried about their responsibilities now and any employer would be concerned about the rising costs. This is why more and more firms are looking to expert and advice on how to limit their problems.