NAPF: 101 issues obstructing guidance guarantee

24 October 2014

More than 100 issues must be resolved for pension schemes to be able to put the guidance guarantee in place by next April, according to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).

Many thanks to Professional pensions for this report:

Speaking to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Pension Schemes Bill, NAPF chief executive Joanne Segars said the list had reduced slightly but there was still a lot of work to be done before April.

Trustees' obligations in relation to defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) transfers, as well as what the guidance would offer and how it was branded were just a handful of matters that needed clarity.

Segars said: "There is a huge amount of information that we simply don't know and we need to be in place sooner rather than later for trustees and schemes sponsors to make the freedom and choice agenda a success and to make the guidance guarantee a success.

"We have a list of 101 known unknowns, to coin a phrase, of issues that need to be clarified, and clarified quickly, for the guidance guarantee to be implemented."

Although DB to DC transfers were not a new issue, Segars argued that trustees needed to know what information the regulators would want to see because the freedoms would "potentially open up the issue to a much bigger scale".