The Retirement Annuity Trust Schemes Rules 2015

The Commission announces that, following the fatal flaws review, the revised RATS Rules will come into force from 31st December, 2015 with one amendment from the version published on 7th September 2015.  The amendment adds the following to the list of permissible assets in Annex A:

"Long term insurance contracts (where underlying investment is in other assets listed in this annex)."

A copy of the rules can be found here.  

The revised Rules were issued for comment following a consultation in 2014.  The objective of the 2014 review was to determine whether there were potential changes that could be made to the RATS Rules in order to reduce the costs and open up opportunities for the development of self-invest pensions without any reduction in the protection available to a member. This objective garnered widespread endorsement and support from industry and the public.