Monthly Archives: April 2017

Steve Webb and the triple lock – muddy waters!

  Here’s that Royal London press release, calling for State Pensions to be reduced and contributions to private pensions to increase. Royal London has set out a three point plan for the key pension priorities of an incoming government, including … Continue reading

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I have seen the future of Horse Racing

  A star is born! This beast galloping over the fields of South Gloucestershire is  a beast of beauty and the likely winner of the Gold Cup. Balanced with a super stride, this 3 year old gelding is owned by … Continue reading

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Real money and real people need real regulation.

  I am an admirer of Angie Brooks, though my opinion of her is not shared by Andrew Warwick- Thompson of the Pension Regulator. Angie and Andrew see pension scams in different ways. This evening I talked with Angie about … Continue reading

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Aon, Mercer and Towers have lost the PR war on DC master trusts (terrific blog by David Rowley)

David Rowley is a great journalist, I’ve just found this on wordpress. It is spot on and it asks a good question at its end. We need an authoritative source of performance data and a league table showing who is … Continue reading

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500,000 stakeholders treated fairly – The B&CE IGC report.

It’s good to be able to report on the B&CE IGC. It didn’t get reviewed by me last year as I had forgotten that the Building and Civil Engineering Insurance Company insured workplace pensions in their own right and weren’t … Continue reading

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Why we’re forever blowing (transfer) bubbles!

    It’s a shame that Alistair Cunningham’s thought-piece on behavioural bias’ encouraging herds of us to “cash-out” our DB pensions, is behind a pay-wall. If you are an FT subscriber you can use the link at the end of … Continue reading

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“Ease of use” or “value for money”?

Paul Lewis, above all other financial journalists is the master of the 140 character tweet. Here is one of his very best, embedded in a conversation with Louise Cooper. The genius is in the “compete mainly on rhetoric and ease … Continue reading

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NEST’s disclosure welcome. Thumbs up from the Pension PlayPen

  It’s not often that someone creates a business plan and sticks to it. But the plan for NEST, hatched between 2008 and 2010 and displayed to the EU in 2010 is being rolled out with method and purpose. For … Continue reading

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NEST’s dirty laundry on the line!

  Thanks to First Actuarial for producing this chart for this blog. Here’s how to read In 2010 when NEST opened , it had no assets – it  had quite a lot of debt (£134m* from setting up days as … Continue reading

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Forever Young – final 3 – thanks for voting “Andy”!

Andy Young has done more than anyone else alive to better pensions in the UK. He deserves a lifetime achievement award for his work – so vote for him! Continue reading

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