Derbyshire County Council pension fund has chosen for Prudential to be its sole provider of the additional voluntary contribution (AVC) pension arrangement it offers to its members.  

Before the appointment Prudential was one of three AVC providers to the scheme, along with Standard Life and Clerical Medical (Equitable Life Assurance Society).

The scheme, in a bid to increase the number of council employees taking advantage of AVC contributions, now opted to retain only one AVC pensions specialist. 

With this latest appointment Prudential now provides the AVC pensions arrangement for two thirds of the 99 local government schemes in the UK. 

Currently only a mere 2% of Derbyshire County Council's pension fund members take advantage of the arrangement. According to the latest data held by Pension Funds Online, the scheme invests currently around £2,6bn and has a total of 78.500 members.

Peter Makin, chair of the Derbyshire County Council pension fund committee, said: "Our decision to have one AVC provider was prompted by our desire to open up awareness and access to AVCs to our pension fund members. Prudential's ability to communicate effectively with our pension fund members along with its attractive AVC proposition and wide range of investment funds were factors in our decision."

Richard Harrison, head of client management at Prudential, said: "As the sole provider we can communicate the benefits of saving into AVCs more effectively with members which, we hope, will lead to more of them making AVCs a part of their retirement plans." 

First published 26.06.2012

azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk