The Vodafone UK Defined Contribution Pension (DC) Plan has started to contribute into LifeSight, a master trust run by Willis Towers Watson.
After taking investment and legal advice, and listening to current members’ feedback, the trustees have decided it will also transfer all members’ existing accounts in the DC plan to LifeSight, the telecommunications company announced.
This includes deferred members’ DC plan accounts – for members who have built up savings but who have now opted out, or who no longer work for Vodafone.
Once the transfer has taken place, the DC plan will be wound up.
Vodafone closed the DC plan to all members, effective 31 December 2019.
This is the latest DC scheme to have joined LifeSight. Only a few days ago the UK pension scheme for the IT services and solutions provider Fujitsu announced it had moved its DC members into LifeSight.
With the rise of DC master trusts as a mainstream pensions vehicle for millions of people, they’ve come under much greater focus, said the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA).
Additional regulation and authorisation requirements are now in place to ensure master trusts are robust enough to “stand the test of time”, the association said.
“It’s imperative any master trust transition, be it between master trusts or between single employer DC schemes and master trusts, follows not only the prescriptive legislation but also industry best practice.”
Last November PASA published the Master Trust Transition Guidance, in which in intended to provide a framework for good practice transitions between master trusts, to assist employers, trustees and advisers, ensuring members’ benefits are correctly recorded and administered.
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