Public sector pensions: Advising clients after massive change

Many workers moved to career average accrual this year

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Moira Warner explores the wide-ranging changes to public sector pension benefits and highlights key areas advisers should be on top of

As the climax to a structural overhaul of public service pension provision, existing final salary schemes were closed by 31 March 2015 and all members, barring those closest to retirement, moved to career average accrual from 1 April 2015. With around 20% of the working population in the public sector, what impact do the changes have on their retirement planning? To date, much of the attention has been focused on the expected government cost savings rather than the potential benefits or challenges for members and their advisers. This has perhaps given rise to a perception that memb...

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