Today is officially pensions awareness day! This instalment is going out to all our members, so we’ve covered as much as possible relevant to our employee members, pensioners and former members.
We’re highlighting how your well performing, award winning fund is financially secure and investing in nature!
We’ve also got some updates about the online portal, some interesting content to share from the national campaigners as well as some tips to spot a pension scam.
Pension communications can be difficult to balance the level of detail in – so we’re looking for people like you to get involved. Read on for more…
EAPF Funding position
The EAPF Annual Report and Financial Statements were laid in parliament in July. The reports are a big read!
The overall message which should provide some comfort is that the fund is continuing to perform well in a pretty volatile market. This is great news for EAPF members as it means the fund is financially secure whilst delivering for nature and the environment.
If you just want the highlights:
- The total value of the Fund’s assets is £4.9bn
- The formal funding level ratio is 103%
- The Fund’s Investments have performed well at a time of financial volatility
- 12% of the Fund’s investments directly help address climate change
See the key highlights from the Active fund report summarised in our 1-page ‘Spotlight’ document.
Read both the Active and Closed fund reports in full.
Our approach to investing in nature is winning us awards…
Your pension fund invests for the long term. Our aim is for our investment approach to deliver financially and be invested responsibly.
We're trailing a blaze in how we invest in natural capital. The EAPF is demonstrating that these assets can generate net biodiversity gain, be deforestation-free, and still deliver the financial return we need.
Our innovative approach is not going unnoticed in the investment world. We proudly accepted a prestigious ‘Excellence & Innovation’ award at the World Pension Summit late last year and this month, we’ve won the 'Real Assets & Infrastructure Investor of the Year' award at a Conference in Germany.
The judges said, "EAPF has adopted a careful strategy linking climate, natural capital and biodiversity and should be lauded for setting clear goals to be net nature-positive and deforestation free goals that are difficult to achieve."
These are important events for us to raise the importance of investing to support biodiversity and to share international best practice in this emerging area.
We’re looking for ideas and input from you!
We know that pensions can be a confusing and complex topic, and we want to make it as simple as possible. As part of our Member Forum, we’ll share ideas and some sample communications with you and gather your feedback. Your comments will help to inform our communications and ensure we’re engaging with Scheme members in the best way possible.
We’ll ask you about a range of topics, and we may ask for your thought on:
- The pension terminology and language we use – what would help make it simpler to understand?
- Our website and how we engage with you – do you have ideas or feedback for improvements we could make?
- Our use of technology and possible developments – what tools or resources would you like to see that aren’t currently available?
If you’d like to be involved, please register your interest and we’ll contact you by email for your feedback on upcoming communications and developments (you can opt out at any time).
Join our Member Forum here!
Changes in how we communicate with you
Since the recent developments in our online portal, with its increased security and improvements in logging on using Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) – going forwards the most secure way to communicate with you is using the online portal.
There are still further developments and new features we’re working on, but in the interests of using the most secure route to correspond with you regarding your pension (without the need to send information via post or email) the new 2-way mailbox will be utilised more in the future.
Besides the fact that communicating with you on the online portal is the most secure route, importantly, there are environmental benefits too in reducing the carbon emissions associated with printing and posting.
Over the next 10 months or so, we’ll be writing to you (by post) to inform you of the next steps with our plans for going digital. This will include your options if you decide that using the portal is not suitable for you or if you don’t have the facilities available for digital communications.
Find out more about the recent developments to the online portal and how to log in if you haven’t accessed it since it’s been updated. See how we've improved EAPF Online here.
National pensions awareness live shows
It’s national ‘Pension Awareness Week’, and the campaigners have some fabulous material for you to enjoy.
The ‘Pension Attention’ campaigners have appointed The Only Way is Essex’s star Gemma Collins – ‘the GC’ to tell you all about ‘paying your pension some attention’ with some tips on what you should be thinking of to become confident for your financial future.
This is not to be missed – see how she brings it all to life in her own special way by watching the video below!
Watch the 'Pay Your Pension Some Attention' video with Gemma Collins on YouTube.
The full campaign is aimed at those thinking about retiring, so if you want to see more of what the GC has got to say, you can visit their website at pensionattention.co.uk
Separately, The Pension Awareness Week campaigners have organised some live shows too, many of the topics are aimed more at those getting ready for retirement. This year they’re covering the topics below:
- Is it a good idea to transfer my pension?
- Financial wellbeing – the balance between money and mindset
- Retirement reality check – how to have the lifestyle you want in retirement
- How to get ready for the retirement you want
- Pensions investments explained
- How to shrink the gender pension gap
- Pension Geeks for HR/Managers only
- DB or not DB?
Don’t worry if you can’t join them live, they’re all being recorded and will be on their website shortly after. You can register to join them below.
Again, please remember these are not EAPF specific, as our webinars will be run separately by EAPF officers and supported by Capita, our appointed administrator. If you're a contributing member, watch out for the booking information for our contributing member webinars in part 3 of this week's campaign.
Sign up for live shows at pensionawarenessday.com/live-shows
Be Pension Scams aware!
This is something that’s commonly targeted at those who have deferred pots of pension either in the EAPF or elsewhere. Unfortunately, in recent years the pensions industry has seen a dramatic rise in pension scams. Don’t fall victim to a scammer, who doesn’t deserve your hard-earned pension!
Scammers are now more sophisticated than ever before. They can be articulate and financially knowledgeable, with impressive websites making it really quite difficult to suspect anything untoward. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published a leaflet pointing out things to look out for and advise on how to protect yourself from a scam.
These are the tactics they point out to look out for:
- Being contacted out of the blue
- Promise of high guaranteed returns
- Free pension reviews
- Access to your pension before age 55
- Pressure to act quickly
If something seems too good to be true, unfortunately it probably is. Click the links below to start learning more about pension scams.
Read Part 1 of our Pension Awareness Week campaign
Read Part 3 of our Pension Awareness Week campaign