Title: XPS Pensions Group appointed as pensions advisory partner to BT Group Plc

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published the final detailed legislation that gives trustees the power to stop a statutory transfer proceeding. This builds on the framework introduced by the Pension Schemes Act 2021. Trustees will be required to implement the new legislation by 30 November 2021 and so immediate action is needed.

The final regulations are based on two conditions that must be tested and, if neither condition is met, trustees have the ability to restrict a transfer.

XPS analysis suggests that only 2% of past transfers would have satisfied the First Condition and so the majority will be subject to the Second Condition. This focuses on identifying specific warning signs of a pension scam.

The new regulations mean that trustees will need to immediately put in place robust measures to gather information directly from members and assess whether a transfer presents any of the red or amber flags noted in the regulations. This is likely to be very challenging. The subjective nature of some of the flags, for example determining whether a fee is "high", will require trustees to consider how they will assess some of the flags. Guidance has been published by the Pensions Regulator, which provides some assistance for trustees.

The information gathered by trustees will need to be recorded in such a way to enable systemic flags, like high numbers of transfers to a particular vehicle, to be easily spotted. If a red flag is identified, then trustees can remove the statutory right to transfer.

XPS Pensions Group Plc is pleased to announce that it has been appointed by BT Group Plc to support their in-house pensions team and advise on actuarial and investment matters and the ongoing evolution of BT's pensions strategy.

BT Group is one of the world's leading communication services companies. The Group has both defined benefit and defined contribution retirement benefit plans, including the BT Pension Scheme, one of the UK's largest occupational pension schemes with 280,000 members and assets of over £50 billon.

Paul Rogers, Pensions Risk Director at BT Group plc said "We wanted to completely reshape the way we work with advisers. We selected XPS following a competitive tender process because they really understood our requirements and offered an innovative and progressive partnership structure. The partnership that XPS will provide will add significant scale and depth of support to BT and further enhance the way we work as a team."

Wayne Segers, Partner at XPS Pensions said "We are thrilled to be able to offer BT a strategic solution that effectively sees XPS become part of the BT in-house team. We are excited to work closely with such an experienced team, in a way that will allow us to better understand the team's culture and goals so that we can add our own innovative approaches. We believe that this structure may become the new normal way of working with in house teams that look after large pension schemes."

Ben Gold, Head of Investments at XPS said "We are delighted that we will be working closely with the BT team. We are excited to be making our in-house research and other systems available to BT, which will both foster a close relationship between our firms and help us to further develop our solutions."