This is the first survey conducted by OPA. As such, it is to a degree experimental and there is room for individual opinion on how to interpret the questions and answers. This summary was made by Brian Marks - you may interpret them differently.

Although the overall effect of the survey is to demonstrate the great variety in the schemes covered by the associations, some questions produced the same answer (or "don't know") from all the responders, so those answers are straight forward. We can say that the associations regard themselves as the sort of organisation that the Regulator would regard as representing pensioners, although the trustees of their scheme might not. (Q2). All associations have their trustees with equal voting power (Q22). The chairman has a vote and a casting vote was mentioned by some.(Q25) Most but not all chairmen are not elected by the trustees. (Q23) The schemes are all sponsored by a UK based company, although its decisions might be controlled by a foreign parent. (Q27) All the schemes were contracted out of SERPS (Q30). None of the schemes were closed to new accruals (the Rentokil approach) (Q34).

Other answers are close to unanimous. If the scheme members all get a newsletter it generally covers fund management (Q16). Only one scheme had an AGM where all members could attend (Q17). "Projected Unit" is the dominant actuarial method used, with just one scheme for "Attained Age" and one for "Aggregate Funding" (Q48). Accrual rates were mostly 1/60ths, with one or two exceptions. (Q32) The associations generally communicate with their members via a newsletter, although a couple of associations have only electronic communications.(Q4) Most associations are funded by a subscription although three manage without. (Q5)

Other questions revealed where there was no dominant answer. Roughly half the associations allowed non-pensioners to join, and half did not. (Q3) Roughly half had no company help in recruiting. Where there was help it was in a wide variety of forms (Q6) A significant number of associations, although less than half, are in contact with the trade unions for sponsoring company. (Q18). The number of trustees varies from 5 to 14, with from 0 to 3 being pensioner nominated. (Q19, Q20) Annual Report dates vary, although mostly either calendar year, December, or financial year, March. (Q29) There is no pattern about how deficits will be addressed. (Q47)

There was a wide variation in the sizes of the schemes. As would obviously be expected, fund size was highly correlated with membership size. Similarly the changes of resources (Q40 - Q42).

Despite the maturity of the schemes, several remained heavily investing in equities. The median was 60% in equities (Q42x)

The questions Q7 to Q14, covering relations between the association and the trustees show a consistency within each association but not across associations. The associations are split into those that have a close relation with the trustees and those that do not.

The results as of 11 May '06 are now based on the replies from 24 associations (out of a possible total of 41) on a total of 27 separate pension funds.

The full results are available on for download here. (xls format)

The questionnaire for the survey is here. (Word format)

Please also note:

A very useful survey of the top 100 pension schemes is available from Professional Pensions