Lawrence Cook: The power of financial advice for decumulation clients
Don’t worry it will be okay in the long run. For long term investors, history will tell you that statement has generally held true. For clients who have recently decided to draw down cash from their...
View ArticlePhilip Dickinson: How a pandemic is revolutionising the pensions sector
Credit should be given to a pensions industry that has mobilised almost overnight and adapted to such challenging circumstances, ensuring that scheme members are paid on time and critical member...
View ArticleAdvisers sceptical of ongoing DB transfer advice profitability
Nearly two-thirds of advisers do not believe defined benefit (DB) transfer advice will remain profitable, a Prudential survey of more than 1,000 intermediaries has found. Prudential surveyed the advice...
View ArticleLords pensions bill amendment could confirm single dashboard approach
A small amendment to the pension schemes bill on 8 June has been labelled ‘significant’ in meeting criticism of the pensions dashboard and could confirm a ‘water-tight’ commitment to run a single...
View ArticleChris Read: In search of those sunlit uplands
Try this for an uplifting moment – download or stream the national anthem of the USSR and play loud, no, really loud. It’s a fantastic piece of music with grandeur, poise, focus and precision. “Sing to...
View ArticleRachel Vahey: ‘Knee-jerk’ contingent charge ban could harm consumers
Lockdown has meant a relatively quiet spell for regulator declarations and consultations. But that peace was shattered at the beginning of June with the publication of the Financial Conduct Authority’s...
View ArticleFCA urged to do more to protect DB and DC members from scams
The Pension Scams Industry Group (PSIG) has called on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to consider further interventions to protect pension scheme members from scams. This comes after the...
View ArticleNegative inflation from Covid-19 ‘could see the end of the triple lock’
A slump in inflation caused by economic damage from the coronavirus could pave the way for the abolition of the state pension ‘triple lock’, according to pension consultants Lane Clark and Peacock...
View ArticleXPS launches Covid-19 vulnerability analysis tool
A scheme vulnerability analysis tool aiming to allow pension schemes to understand the likely impact of Covid-19 on their members’ life expectancy has been launched by XPS Pension Group. With around...
View ArticleMaps lays down response to Covid-19 pensions impact in 10-year strategy
The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) has a “critical role to play” in the UK’s economic recovery from coronavirus, it says in a ten-year corporate plan. The plan – delayed since the beginning of April...
View ArticleLisa Webster: Why the MPAA was a bad idea
Since its introduction in 2016, it’s the tapered annual allowance (TAA) which has grabbed all the pension allowance headlines. The crescendo of noise relating to its detrimental effect on our health...
View ArticleJessica List: Death benefit discretion problems revisited
Two years ago I wrote here about a couple of high profile complaint cases which both centred on death benefits; or, more specifically, around each scheme administrator’s choice of beneficiaries. In...
View ArticleChris Read: Trapped within the luxuriance of incarceration
Pitcairn Island is a very difficult place to get to. Isolated in the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean, it was the hiding place in 1789 for Fletcher Christian and the mutineers from HMS...
View ArticleRP case studies: Planning a SSAS takeover
Sam and Ben are an entrepreneurial couple who have been running a successful limited company business for a number of years, having created and sold some businesses along the way. They know a thing or...
View ArticleMaps begins market engagement project with pensions dashboard suppliers
The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) has started a six-week period of informal market engagement with potential suppliers of the digital architecture for the pensions dashboards. Maps – the...
View ArticleNeil MacGillivray: A tonic for the Covid-19 capital losses headache
Nobody likes to see the value of their investment portfolio fall. However, in every crisis there are opportunities, and I don’t mean the ridiculous mark ups on hand sanitiser that we saw. When markets...
View ArticleFCA launches workplace pensions value for money consultation
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will bring forward proposals designed to promote value for money for workplace pension schemes members, a consultation paper says. The consultation paper released...
View ArticleMohassan Mehmood: The implications of the Sippchoice v HMRC case
It’s been a long-standing dispute over the tax treatment of transferring non-cash assets into pension schemes. Let’s rewind to 2018. Sippchoice Limited was successful at the First-tier Tribunal in...
View ArticleFCA to send second in-depth marketwide DB questionnaire imminently
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will send a second marketwide in-depth questionnaire on defined benefit (DB) transfers to firms later this week, RP’s sister title Professional Adviser reports....
View ArticleFCA wins legal battle against unregulated pension introducers Avacade and...
The High Court has ruled in favour of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a civil action against unregulated introducers Avacade and Alexandra Associations after pension savers were persuaded to...
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