Monthly Archives: January 2015
How did IFAs end up payroll experts?
In 2011 I started getting interested in payroll. Having read the automatic enrolment regulations it seemed I’d have to if my firm was to help employers. In 2012 and 2013 and 2014 I was named among the top 50 … Continue reading
How low can guidance go?
The FCA have published an important document that sets out to define where guidance ends and advice begins. Thankfully , it’s one you can read without feeling guilty that you aren’t going to answer 150 consultation questions! The FCA has … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, FCA, pension playpen, pensions, Pensions Regulator
Tagged advice, Decision Tree, digital, DWP, FCA, Financial Conduct Authority, financial education, Guidance, Guidance Guarantee, Pension Wise
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We need some disruption – to sort the Hard Problem
Tom Stoppard’s new play, the Hard Problem, asks whether individual consciousness (and the ideas of good and evil that go with it) can exist in a material world Continue reading
What should employers do about pensions?
Employers pay pensions – don’t they? It’s baked into the DNA of Government social policy that a part of the welfare system is managed by employers prepared to fund an employee benefit that provides a certain income in retirement. So … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Business, corporate risk, dc, dc pensions, Defined benefit pension plan, Defined Contribution, DWP, employer, Employment, Freedoms, Government, Insurance, Money, National Employment Savings Trust, pension, Pension Freedoms, Pension new, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement, Steve Webb, Work
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Crushed by falling bond yields – great guest blog by Ralph Frank
Mainstream assessments of the state of investment markets tend to focus on the equity market. The level of the FTSE 100, S&P 500, Dow and/or Nikkei is deemed to be an indicator of the health of savers’ investment portfolios and/or … Continue reading
Posted in actuaries, Bankers, CDC, defined aspiration
Tagged Actuarial science, Actuary, annuity, Aviva, Bank of England, Blog, de-risking, Gilt yields, gilts, pensions, Ralph Frank
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How competitive is our private pension system?
We are three months away from the launch of the new pension freedoms and not much is happening. There ain’t nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees! NEST has issued a lengthy consultation on what it should … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged advice, art of pensions, bank accounts, Business, CDC, competition, corporate governance, corporate risk, dc pensions, Defined benefit pension plan, DWP, Employment, FCA, Fidelity, Freedoms, Government, Guidance, Insurance, Insurers, L&G, Laura Perks- Art, National Employment Savings Trust, NEST, pendragon, Pension Freedoms, Pension new, pensions, Retirement, simon freeman, Standard Life, Steve Webb, TPAS, Treasury, trees, Zurich
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Stand up if you love Reubens!
I’m not sure I was supposed to be there, but I found myself looking for Henry Cobbe and his party at the Royal Academy. As I wondered from room to room – I was amazed not just by the conviviality of … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged bacon, Delacroix, Fragonard, Freud, Henry Cobbe, Renoir, Reubens, Royal Academy, Van Eyck
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All I want is easy access (baby)!
Easy Action When Marc Bolan wrote Solid Gold Easy Action in 1972, it was a smash hit , I was ten and I spent my savings to buy it But I can’t get no satisfaction All I want is easy action, … Continue reading
When all else fails – keep on working!
Jeroen Wilbronk is a really good bloke, but I always end up disagreeing with him. He’s one of these smart-arse markets people who has an answer for everytyhing! I’ve known him a few years and have always envied his sunny … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Actuary, advice, corporate governance, corporate risk, crash, customer service, deiversification, Forex, Investment, IPad, Jeroen Wilbronk, Markets, Strategy, Switzerland
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