Specialist Insurance

[desertrat]

Currently my company pension scheme is in deficit by quite a bit although the company itself is pretty financially sound. With all the bad press about company pension schemes being wound up and prior to the government taking action to protect employess - cue long wait - does anyone know of a specialist insurer who would insure my final salary pension? I've phoned around a few and if it isn't a car or a house they are not interested.

[Miss Zippy]

The government are currently working on proposals to make it compulsory for all final salary schemes to insure themselves against losses in their schemes. Even if this proposal goes ahead, it will take some years for this to be implemented. To answer your question about whether you can effect insurance yourself, I would guess that your chances of finding a company to underwrite this are slim to none. I imagine the only insurer that might conceivably consider this would be a niche Lloyds syndicate, but I imagine the premiums would be pretty steep and you might be better off saving any money otherwise spent on premiums to put towards your retirement, or invest in an AVC/FSAVC, which will attract tax relief.

[FTVS]

Miss Zippy is correct - it doesn't sound like a great risk! However if you do want to explore this option you need to get in touch with a specialist Lloyds broker - the numbers you find thorugh net will not get you access to the sort of Lloyds syndicate you need to speak to and Lloyds syndicates do not place business direct with the public. Anyway here's what I hope is the link to lloyds - you may be able to contact a broker through there: http://www.lloyds.com/index.asp