$1 trillion on infrastructure? Barriers to trade? Two and a half days after Trump wins the US Presidency, bond yields are up and we may have seen the event that sparks a bout of inflation.

With an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF), when you die you can leave any remaining funds to your spouse/civil partner or other beneficiaries. If you leave the funds to your spouse or civil partner, the funds can be transferred to an Approved Retirement Fund in their name. In all other cases, the funds are wound up […]

Prescribed Guidance in Relation to Section 34 of the Pensions Act, 1990 Monday 24 October 2016: The Authority has issued revised statutory guidance, approved by the Minister on 21 September 2016, in relation to section 34 of the Pensions Act. The effective date of this guidance is 1 January 2017.

The Pensions Authority today, 21 October 2016, published the basis on which transfer values should have been calculated since 21 September 2016. They have confirmed that the attached guidance was effective from the date the Minister approved the guidance. For practical purposes, a lead in time may need to be agreed so that actuarial systems […]

The Irish Times has published a supplement on pensions today, 18 October 2016. The supplement covers pension saving options as well as the future of pensions provision. John O’Connell, Director of Trident Consulting is quoted in the following articles:          Trident Consulting has advised industry stakeholders in relation to future pension provision.

The changes affecting pensions and investments announced in today’s budget are as follows: No change to private pension rules €5 per week increase in the State pension from 1st March 2017 The DIRT rate applying to bank deposit interest will be reduced from 41% to 39% in 2017 and thereafter an annual reduction of 2% p.a. […]

Research from Friends First life assurance company, a provider of personal and company pensions, reveals that 73% of those surveyed are not confident that they will have sufficient income in retirement. And they’re probably right because the average contribution of those surveyed is €3,000 annually while the average expectation for a retirement is an income of €19,500 […]

Trident Consulting’s US network partner comments in the attached article on the regime for required distributions from accumulated retirement funds in the USA. The difficulty is that parameters for drawing down retirement funds were set in the past when life expectancy was shorter than today. The regime for drawing down funds in Ireland is much […]

The ICTU held a pensions conference on 29 September 2016 against the background of over 50% of defined benefit schemes closing in recent years. The State pension alone does not provide sufficient income in retirement for the majority so it is important that there is another strand to pension provision. Their view is that private […]

In recent days, the Pensions Authority published its Annual Report for 2015. It’s quite a lengthy document (Pensions Authority 2015 Annual Report). The Pensions Authority 2015 activity and statistics is a good summary of the key points. Active membership in defined benefit schemes that are not subject to the funding standard is down 10% over the […]