Take steps now to prepare for Pension Schemes Bill, TPR tells trustees

Trustees should take practical steps now to prepare for the Pension Schemes Bill and ensure they continue to provide quality services, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) said on Wednesday.

In a speech, TPR’s Interim Director of Policy and Public Affairs Patrick Coyne said the regulator will seek to bridge the gap between the introduction of new duties from the Pensions Schemes Bill and the ‘here and now’ need to govern schemes well and provide high quality services.

Mr Coyne told the Professional Pensions DC conference there are four themes that run across the various strands of the Bill focused on the DC system.

For each of these themes, he said, there are steps that scheme trustees should take now to get ready:

• Be saver outcome focused: Consider their investment strategy and challenge advisors to provide suitable insights and commentary on performance.

• Build scale: Consider value proposition and work through the practical steps they might need to take to consolidate if needed in the interests of savers. If they have scale consider new investment opportunities, like LTAFs, now available.

• Be data-led and accountable: Consider investment in digital infrastructure to ensure high data quality and administration standards in the run up to pensions dashboards, and engage with administrators to understand what they can offer with different price points

• Innovate at retirement: start discussions at trustee boards around decumulation products and services and come to TPR’s innovation support services for discussions on early ideas.

Mr Coyne said: “The Pension Schemes Bill will fundamentally reshape the DC market. There are a number of steps that schemes can take now to get ready. So I urge trustees to look now at how they are outcome-focused, building scale, are data-led and supporting savers into retirement.”