Monthly Archives: January 2012

Join us for the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival 2012

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

Each year we (the Pension Play Pen) organise a week down in the Cotswolds and go racing for four days at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival. The racing takes place between 13th and 16th March and we have taken the house for … Continue reading →

Posted in cheltenham festival, Horse racing, pension playpen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

“A fair and lasting settlement”; public sector pensions

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

Paul Johnson and the Institute of Fiscal Studies have done the numbers and, to nobody’s surprise, have concluded that the long-term cost of  public sector pensions in terms of “pensions out” will be about the same under the new regime … Continue reading →

Posted in de-risking, pensions, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Don’t blame Stephen Hester – we made his rules.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

If anything is to be learned from current events, it needs to be learned about how the rules are established (not whether they are applied). Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, Church of England, corporate governance, dc pensions, Fred Goodwin, pension playpen, pensions | 4 Comments

“Twitter’s censorship is a grey box of shame, but not for twitter”

Posted on January 29, 2012 by

This excellent article is by Paul  Smalera. There’s been plenty of fancy talk about twitter’s “grey box” policy but this is the only balanced peice I’ve come across. Follow the links at the bottom if you want more.   Twitter’s … Continue reading →

Posted in twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Racket of the Lambs – 20 things you never wanted to know about Pension Rocks III’s top band

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

The Racket of the Lambs – 20 things you never wanted to know about Pension Rocks III’s top band.

| 1 Comment

Popcorn Pensions III – transforming the business of Pensions

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

If you’ve been following my posts recently, (thanks) you’ll be aware of a thread defined by the phrase “Popcorn Pensions” that refers to my friend Peter Shellswell’s KFC moment. Peter told me over the Popcorn Chicken that he’d decided to move on from … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, customer service, dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, Management, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Controlling wealth is not the same as generating wealth

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

IFAs Control £591bn of Britain’s wealth. That’s a whole lot of moley. Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, corporate governance, Fiduciary Management, Horse racing, Management, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A hunger to educate – more on Popcorn Pensions

Posted on January 25, 2012 by

Hunger is not a word you’d associate with actuaries. One of our clients described the team working for her as “happy puppies” who approached the task of educating members with ” hunger“. These are not words that exist in the … Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, auto-enrolment, customer service, dc pensions, happiness, Henry Tapper blog, mallowstreet, Management, pension playpen, pensions, social media, Treasury | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRUST – Onora O’Neil

Posted on January 23, 2012 by

I came across this on mallowstreet and thought it relevent to many of the discussions on this blog. I’ve written about ethics and political philosophy all my working life, but until the last two years I did not write on … Continue reading →

Posted in Bankers, Church of England, corporate governance | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

10 infrastucture opportunities pension funds cannot ignore!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

The Government has announced that it wants UK pension funds to invest in UK infrastructure. This week we saw a slice of Thames Water purchased by the Chinese. I live on the Thames and as dawn rises this morning I’m on “Junk Alert” on “the partially yellow river”. Continue reading →

Posted in annuity, Bankers, Church of England, corporate governance, dc pensions, de-risking, religion, Retirement, social media, Treasury, Twickenham, twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment