Category Archives: Fiduciary Management

And why these “employer duties”?

Posted on April 7, 2013 by

Employers do not have fourty year business plans but employees do. We call those plans “careers”. Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, corporate governance, David Pitt-Watson, dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, governance, Henry Tapper blog, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement | 5 Comments

Give a straight red to active member discounts

Posted on March 30, 2013 by

What are active member discounts (AMDs) and what’s so wrong with them? Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, brand, dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, pensions, Personal Accounts, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

How the banks try to f*ck us – and how we deal with them

Posted on March 10, 2013 by

It’s Sunday morning and I am reading a poem written around 1936 by Ezra Pound. It is about Usury , in this context the bad practice of the Medici Bank which Pound claimed screwed up the great artistic achievements of medieval … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, ezra pound, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, Fred Goodwin, governance, happiness, pensions, poetry, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Who’s been sleeping in my bed? Shocking stuff on stock lending.

Posted on March 2, 2013 by

Storage companies do not lend out your property, but fund managers do! Continue reading →

Posted in dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, First Actuarial, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, stock lending | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Pension agnostic?

Posted on February 18, 2013 by

An ”agnostic“ is someone who knows he cannot know and so gives up trying to find out. You hear the phrase “pension agnostic” bandied around at the moment, mainly from the providers of ancillary services that help companies auto-enrol. If you key … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, Consolation, corporate governance, dc pensions, defined aspiration, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, First Actuarial, hargreaves lansdowne, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The solid value of insurance

Posted on January 19, 2013 by

“The people I talk to full into one of two categories, either you’ve built up some money and want to hang onto it, or you are looking to .” That was our opening gambit when we met with prospects. I … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, Fiduciary Management, life insurance, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Comply or explain” – will “bottom up” regulation work for pensions?

Posted on January 13, 2013 by

“Comply or Explain” is a phrase that crept into the “corporate governance” lexicon after the 1992 Cadbury report. The idea’s that rather than demand compliance with Government standards, regulators give companies the option to comply or explain why they haven’t. … Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, club pension, corporate governance, customer service, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, napf, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Is there a future for defined benefit pensions?

Posted on November 2, 2012 by

The TUC has published a working paper written by my colleague Hilary Salt entitled “the future of defined benefit pensions provision” which is a very good read. You can reach it here. The wags among you may consider that you could … Continue reading →

Posted in dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, First Actuarial, NEST, pensions, Public sector pensions, Retirement, Trades Union Congress | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Why we mustn’t let the Royal Mail “pension solution” become a precedent

Posted on August 6, 2012 by

In Pension Age’s May edition, Paddy Briggs argued that the member’s best interests were not being served by the Government’s “sequestration” of the assets of the Royal Mail’s pension fund. Roger Turner produced a cogent riposte in your July/August issue … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, Management, pensions, Public sector pensions, Royal Mail | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Send in forensic actuaries to sort out these “rip-off” pensions!

Posted on July 25, 2012 by

Spookily, a couple of hours after I’d published yesterday’s blog about how the DWP had ducked the dodgy question of how to sort out legacy pension charges, Steve Webb, the Pension Minister issued an appeal to the pensions industry to … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, annuity, auto-enrolment, corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, Financial Education, leadership, Retirement, Treasury | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments