Insolvency Blog - Pensions & Insolvency
Unfair Lehman and Nortel pensions decision wrecks the rescue culture
Date: 13th December, 2010 | Author: Chris Laughton | Comments: 0
The administrators of 20 Lehman and Nortel companies face meeting Financial Support Directions (FSDs) and Contribution Notices (CNs) from The Pensions Regulator as an expense of the administrations because of the judgment handed down by Mr Justice Briggs. The implications for the rescue culture are severe - unless the hope expressed by Briggs J "that a higher court may find a way through or around the existing authorities" is rewarded as the case is appealed. The scope of the decision should not be underestimated. Any administration of a company that has been, at any time within the previous two years, an...
Insolvency risk - the PPF’s “Purple Book”
Date: 19th January, 2007 | Author: Chris Laughton | Comments: 1
The Pensions Regulator ("TPR") and the Pension Protection Fund ("PPF") issued The Purple Book in November 2006, revealing, in addition to much wider pension risk issues, the PPF's perspective of insolvency risk, largely on the basis of Dun & Bradstreet's methodology and data. Key relevant messages include: insolvency risk is higher in companies with poorly funded or small pension schemes or in traditional industries; 0.7% of active companies go into insolvent liquidation each year, but the risk of insolvency is dramatically higher for the 5% of companies with the lowest Dun & Bradstreet failure score (ie those scoring 1 - 5). ...
Pension Scheme Failure or Rescue?
Date: 8th November, 2006 | Author: Chris Laughton | Comments: 1
Filing s120 (Pensions Act 2004) notices with the Pension Protection Fund is now commonplace for insolvency practitioners. Where there is a defined benefit scheme, most go on to report scheme failure - or occasionally rescue. But what if there is no liability, perhaps because despite the employer's insolvency the scheme was exceedingly well funded (unlikely), or perhaps there was a compromise agreement for which The Pensions Regulator gave clearance? There is something of a gap in the law, which appears to have been drafted on the assumption that all schemes have net liabilities. The problem is in regulation 9 of The Pension...
