Sunday, 18 November 2012

National Association of Pension Funds.

body providing representation and other services for those involved indesigning, operating, advising and investing in all aspects of pensions and other retirement provision.

National Insurance Services to Pensions Industry.

A team within the National Insurance Contributions Office (NICO), dealing with occupational pension schemes and appropriate personal pension schemes which are contracted out of the state additional pension scheme (SERPS, State Earnings Related Pension Scheme or S2P, the State Second Pension).

non-contributory scheme

A scheme which does not require contributions from itsactive members.

non-professional clients

Generally defined as having limited investment expertise.Pension scheme trustees tend to fall into this categoryand they may have other factors to consider apart frominvestment returns, eg the employer covenant, their attitude to risk etc.
Advisers and fund managersare required to give trustees the opportunity to designatethemselves as non professional and therefore inneed of extra protection, which is likely to result in higher costs for advice and management.

notice (of wind up)

The formal written notification between the employer and the trustee that wind up has been started. The notice must be formally acknowledged in writing. The format will vary from scheme to scheme and should be discussed with the scheme lawyer.

Normal pension age.

Earliest age at which a member can receive full pension benefits. It is not necessarily the same as normal pension date or normal retirement age.

on risk date

In an annuity purchase, this is the date deemed to be the date at which the risk fora particular set of members istransferred to a provider in exchange for a premium.

Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority.

Established by the Pensions Act 1995, OPRA was responsible for supervising occupational pension schemes. OPRA was superseded by The PensionsRegulator with effect from April 2005.

options

A contract with a bank, which is paid for upfront and which will allow the investor to buy or sell certainspecified assets at an agreed price at some time in the future. The market value of those assets may have moved in a way which makes the contract disadvantageous for the bank at the time it is exercised.

par value

The value of a loan at the time it is made by the original investor, also known as the 'maturity value' or 'face value'. It is the amount which the issuer will pay back to the current owner ofthe bond at the agreed maturity date. For index-linked gilts, the par value is the size of the original loan uplifted to take account of inflation in the meantime.