Monthly Archives: April 2014

Should fund managers be paid less for poor performance?

Posted on April 30, 2014 by

Sarah Smart of the Pensions Trust is on a crusade to make the fund management industry more accountable. She suggests in this month’s IPE that the bonus structures for those managing your money should be aligned with the time schemes you … Continue reading →

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Boris on pensions!

Posted on April 29, 2014 by

All week I have been reading tweets from John Ralfe on the Osborne Pension Reforms. John’s argument is that the reforms have been imposed upon us without consultation and that they are likely to do permanent damage to the pension … Continue reading →

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Princess Margaret does it for me

Posted on April 28, 2014 by

Thursday night’s when the Pension Personality awards get judged. That no-one can remember who the current Pension Personality is , suggests that this is about as useful a gong as Gillingham and Shaftesbury Carnival Queen which I once entered in … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Charity, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, pensions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Whether we’re up or down”- what the terraces teach us about finance

Posted on April 27, 2014 by

  The reference is to a line in “Yeovil True” which celebrates our fan’s relationship to the club. On Friday the club’s men’s team did go down to League Division One, this time last year we went up to the Championship- … Continue reading →

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If we knew when we died – we’d live a bit better.

Posted on April 26, 2014 by

The idea of a fixed term parliament is a good one, none of this uncertainty about when to call an election, everyone works with purpose to certain ends. Life should be like , or death. Actuaries can tell you when … Continue reading →

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Measuring the success of the Guidance Guarantee

Posted on April 26, 2014 by

The most interesting discussions at yesterday’s pow-wow at the FCA centred on “Measures of Success”.  Bearing in mind the point of the Guidance Guarantee is help people make an informed choice, I’d have thought the answer was simple The measure of success … Continue reading →

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Leadership needed to deliver the Budget’s pension promises

Posted on April 25, 2014 by

I’m off this morning to meet the FCA, hear about the detail on the Budget’s proposals on the New Annuity Guidance Framework and have a chance to deliver my tuppence worth on what should happen. This week my mind has … Continue reading →

Posted in accountants, actuaries, advice gap, auto-enrolment | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pound cost ravaging

Posted on April 24, 2014 by

I felt like General Melchett inspecting the trenches. At the 21st Century Retirement Income Update I met a bunch of advisers who have since 2008 been trying to help clients make sense of the volatility in world markets , understand the relationship … Continue reading →

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21st Century Retirement Income Update

Posted on April 23, 2014 by

  Well here I am in a Village hotel under the M1 seven miles south of Leeds to chair a day long conference on the opportunities for financial advisers from George Osborne’s Budget Changes (the photo is the lovely view … Continue reading →

Posted in corporate governance, First Actuarial, NEST, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Nest’s auto-enrolment -innit!” – “no it ain’t!”

Posted on April 22, 2014 by

  Auto-enrolment and NEST are synonymous to many. Hugh Pym, the BBC’s chief economic correspondent  told me he thought you could only auto-enrol into NEST and the mistake was repeated by Rachel Burden this morning on auto-enrolment. Rachel told the listeners … Continue reading →

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