Avoiding the traps (TT Sep07 p42-44)

It will not have escaped the attention of pension scheme sponsors that almost everyone is clamouring for higher scheme funding levels – not least trustees and the Pensions Regulator. And there are, indeed, strong incentives for funding, not least potential reductions in tax bills and the risk-based levy of the Pension Protection Fund. Yet despite these demands, strongly performing equity markets and some increases to long-term interest rates in the UK have combined to give treasurers something new to worry about – the possibility of unproductive surpluses arising in pension schemes, where there may well be no future benefit accruals to be funded and little chance of obtaining a refund. This article looks at some of the generic measures available to scheme sponsors for avoiding trapped surplus.