Is your DB run-on fit for purpose?
Many DB schemes are creating a surplus management problem for themselves Most don't know it yet. As run-on has become a viable option, the industry has responded. Frameworks have been launched. Documents have been produced. Meetings have been held. But look closely at most of them, and you'll find the same thing: A rebadged Journey Plan. The Journey Plan is a powerful tool. But it was built for a different problem - growing a scheme to a strong financial position. Repackagi
Escrow is not a pension contribution. Treat it differently.
Corporate sponsors of UK defined benefit schemes have spent the past few years watching their funding positions improve - sometimes dramatically. Elevated gilt yields have done much of the work. But alongside a scheme now sitting in surplus, a significant number of sponsors also have an escrow arrangement that has quietly been accumulating. The instinct is to treat both as part of the same pension story. This is worth examining. The combined capital stack The Surplus Managem
DB surplus advice risks destroying 37% of value
Here is how. When a business evaluates any capital project, the rule is simple: discount future cashflows at the company's cost of capital. If the return falls short of that hurdle, the project destroys value - even if it generates cash in absolute terms. That logic is applied rigorously to every factory, every acquisition, every piece of capital equipment a business deploys. It is almost never applied to the pension surplus. Right now, schemes are sitting on substantial sur
