Pension reform: PBGC-like idea takes hold across the pond; U.K. revives what it once rejected.(News)

Pensions & Investments, June, 2003

Byline: Benjamin Seeder LONDON - Nearly 10 years ago, the idea of replicating America's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. was derided as flawed and was quickly discarded. This month, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government announced it will start a pension insurance fund modeled on the PBGC, a quasi-governmental agency created 30 years ago.

Andrew Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions, announced on June 11 a series of reforms that includes the establishment of a Pension Protection Fund, financed by a flat tax on all U.K. pension plans. Also included in the announcement were plans to alter Britain's minimum funding requirement laws to scheme-specific arrangements, whereby funding levels are established by the scheme in consultation with the...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.