Award categories

Here is the full list of categories for 2011 - along with judging criteria guidelines.

To enter the awards we will need a submission by 17th June. Please see the entry process page for more information.

Overall scheme categories:

• Pension Scheme of the Year: No entries are needed for this category. The winner will be chosen by the judges and will go to the scheme that, in their opinion, offers the highest quality of service, innovation and administrative efficiency to members.

• Premier Scheme of the Year (over £2.5bn)

• Large Scheme of the Year (over £1bn-£2.5bn)

• Medium Scheme of the Year (£250m-£1bn)

• Small Scheme of the Year (up to £250m)

• Public Sector Scheme of the Year

• DC Scheme of the Year

These six categories will be judged against the following criteria:

Administration: Schemes should demonstrate performance against service level agreements, set out their reporting strategy and their use of IT.

Communication: Judges will be looking for clarity and at the methods being used - newsletters, meetings, roadshows etc.

Investment management: Schemes should set out their investment strategies and show performance over one, three, five and 10 years.

Governance: Entrants should set out their voting records on investments and the steps they have taken to implement social, environmental and ethical criteria.

Education: Judges will want to know the measures schemes have taken to educate members and raise their financial awareness and explain why they need to save for the future.

Other categories:

• Pensions Manager of the Year: Personal awards for specific achievement in advancing the interests of members and occupational pension provision. Managers may nominate themselves for the award.

• Pension Scheme Trustee of the Year: Award for the trustee board or the individual trustee that has done most for their scheme. Judges will look for evidence of particular problems or challenges they have helped overcome and how they did this along with innovations they helped the scheme put in place. Trustees and trustee boards may nominate themselves for this award.

• Best DB Scheme Innovation: This award will be awarded to the scheme which has made the most innovative changes during the year in order to achieve its objectives

• Best DC Scheme Innovation: This award will be awarded to the DC scheme which has best used innovations in scheme design, investment management, communication or administration to further its objectives.

• Best DB Investment Strategy: This award aims to recognise the schemes that have best used their investment strategy in order to achieve their goals.

• Best DC Investment Strategy: This award aims to recognise the DC schemes that have made the best use of investments in their in their DC investment offering in order to achieve their objectives.

• Best Use of Alternatives: This award will recognise the schemes that have made best use of their alternative asset strategies (including, for the purposes of this award, asset classes such as Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Property, Infrastructure, Commodities etc) to achieve their investment objectives.

• DB Communications (private) and (public): Judges will be looking for schemes that embrace all forms of communications - online, in person, in print and using social media - and membership initiatives such as pension clinics. They will also assess the quality of pensioner communications. Schemes will need to provide at least one example of these communications as a PDF or via a weblink.

• Best DC Communication Strategy: Judges will be looking for clear and concise literature, interactive material, videos, CDs etc along with the use of other forms of communication such as face-to-face seminars, social media and websites (along with website tools) to decide on the winner for this category. Schemes will need to provide at least one example of these communications as a PDF or via a weblink.

• Trustee Development Awards: Demands on trustees are greater than ever and the judges will be looking at the range of training programmes and assistance that schemes provide.

• Best Use of IT: Judges will be looking at the rapidly evolving use of the internet and social media; the impact it is having on administration and communications; access given to members and the use of the intranet.

• Best Administration: Awarded to schemes which demonstrate the best possible administration service to members. Key criteria for judges will be service level agreements, reporting strategy and the effective use of IT.

• Best Use of Risk Reduction Strategies: This is a new award which reflects the growing use of risk reduction strategies by schemes and corporate sponsors. Judges will be looking at how trustees assessed potential reduction offerings, how they implemented the strategy and how the strategy fits in with the rest of the scheme's asset portfolio and will develop in the future.

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We are now taking table bookings for the evening. For more information on attending these awards, please click here.

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