Only 46 per cent of employees have formal pension arrangements in place, a senior partner with the consultancy company, Watson Wyatt, said yesterday.

Mr Gerry O'Carroll, addressing a seminar in Cork on the advantages of pension benefits design, said that the flight to defined contribution planning was worrying when pension costs were increasing and investment values were falling. Delegates were told that a move towards flexible annuities, with-profit annuities and managed fund annuities would allow greater equity investment after retirement.