Large firms offer DC schemes to 70% of senior hires

The human resources consultancy says the figure, researched this year, shows the era of two-tier company pensions, where companies closed final salary pension schemes to all but senior executives, have almost ended. John Ball, a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt, says: "When companies first started to close their final salary pension plans to new hires, initially many - though not all - of them left them open to new senior executives. “However, due in part to pressure from groups as diverse as the ABI and the trades unions, in most cases this is no longer considered acceptable practice....