Cold War, Hard and Soft
A cold war has hard and soft components, like an egg or the SAT. Last night the Oscars were a stark reminder the U.S. is winning the soft-power part of the war. The hard part could be a much different story.
“Nomadland,” a very good, very depressing movie about premature retirees living in vans, won best picture. Its director, Chloé Zhao, a Chinese national, won best director. (Frances McDormand, a national treasure, won best actress for her part in the movie. Also, if you didn’t find the movie quite depressing enough, please read Jessica Bruder’s very good book.)
Professional trustees dominating pensions landscape; top 12 firms post annual growth of 14%
Mike Smedley: The influence of professional trustees is phenomenal
The consultant s
Professional Independent Trustee Survey 2021 found that a growing regulatory burden and a desire for improved governance is driving rapid growth in the professional trustee market.
And it said, while professional trustee firms are not new, the evolution of the traditional trustee model for UK pension schemes is accelerating the growth of a small but incredibly powerful industry .
Appointments and scheme assets
Note: The chart shows the number of pension trustee appointments held by each firm together with an estimate of the total assets in those pension schemes. The asset figures are heavily influenced by appointments to the very largest schemes.
October 2018
Source: The Pensions Regulator
The regulator is seeking responses from trustees, managers of occupational and personal pension schemes and scheme managers, advisory boards and pension boards of public service pension schemes.
It said it is also “particularly interested to hear from non-professionals, such as member-nominated and lay trustees, and whether they find the new code easier to use and understand.”
“The new code signals some significant changes in approach, which in turn will mean significant changes in pension scheme practice – although more for DB than DC schemes,” said Susan Hoare, partner at consultancy Aon.
“Having a code of practice all in one place is very helpful from a user’s perspective. Ten of the existing codes of practice have been amalgamated into this single modular code (Supercode) which is presented as 51 concise modules. This has allowed TPR to remove a lot of duplication; for example, if you currently search for ‘Conflict