Tag Archives: Public Sector Pensions

A gentler way to talk about pensions

  Yesterday afternoon I had a chat with Glyn Jenkins. Most of my conversations with Glyn over the years have been in the bar of Unison’s Marylebone’s offices. Glyn is old school and that means he prioritises people. This chat … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, Pension Freedoms, pensions, Personality, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why pensions pinch your pay packet

We now know that we are unlikely to get a national pay rise for the rest of the decade. We are worse off in terms of wages than we were ten years ago. What we get paid matters and with … Continue reading

Posted in accountants, actuaries, economics, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Does drawdown need a charges cap for pension drawdown

This post was written a few months ago but never published. The main thrust is still relevant, the thrust is that we are better off building better and more relevant products than trying to squeeze drawdown into a shirt two … Continue reading

Posted in accountants, advice gap, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mobilising millions – training employers on AE.

Who is going to mobilise the millions of bosses still to stage auto-enrolment? There are not 1.3m but 1.8m employers in the UK who will need to stage auto-enrolment.Of these , all but around 65,000, more than 1,790,000 employers have … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why the FCA should take a leaf out of tPR’s book.

  The Pensions Regulator have been re-born over the last five years and become focussed on helping advisers, trustees and employees solve pension problems. They have started treating us as  customers and not potential criminals. Sadly, this attitudinal shift doesn’t seem … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“We all defer together?” – Guest Blog from Ralph Frank

The recently announced consultation on pensions tax relief has stirred up thought and debate on the issue of incentivising long-term saving.  There are theoretical, commercial and practical aspects to be addressed in this process of defining an approach to pensions … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The transfer mess gets worse…

It’s been some weeks since I wrote about transfers. To recap, I have been predicting a seizure in the transfer market , resulting from high demand, low-advisory capacity and pipes blocked with regulatory effluent. So it doesn’t come as a … Continue reading

Posted in Treasury, trustee | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Pension PlayPen’s response to the Treasury on pension tax-relief

The Treasury has asked eight great questions which go to the heart of how we incentivise pension saving. Here are our responses. We haven’t formally sent these responses to the Treasury yet, so if you have any comments, please send … Continue reading

Posted in pensions, Pensions Regulator, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why I’m backing the master trust assurance framework

Back in May 2014, the Pension Regulator launched on an unsuspecting world the ICAEW’s Technical Release “Assurance reporting on master trusts”. At the time I was dismissive of this document and the Master Trust Assurance Framework (MAF). Write in haste , … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, pensions, Pensions Regulator, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How pensions restrain public sector pay and services.

The latest discussions about how we will manage the nation’s finances are focussing on public sector pay.Nick Clegg tells us that his party will make sure   wages would rise in real terms for two years from 2016, and then … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment