Monthly Archives: April 2017
FAB index continues to climb (and has some good news for Tata Steel!) #FABI
First Actuarial’s Best estimate (FAB) Index improved again in March showing a surplus of £294bn across the 6,000 UK defined benefit schemes. This continues to buck the trend with the PPF 7800 index falling for the third month in a … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged British Steel, Deficit, Fab Index, FABI, first actuarial, tata
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Winning and losing IGCs – class of 2017!
With (almost) all the known IGC reports in, it’s time to see how the reports of 2017 stacked up against 2016. Apologies that the links in the table don’t work, my formatting skills are poor and I’ve included the links … Continue reading
Telford’s finest – the ReAssure 2017 IGC report
What UK Life insurer is based in Telford Shropshire? Answer – ReAssure And if you were in a workplace pension with Guardian, HSBC, Barclays Life, Alico and National Mutual, you are now one of their customers. They are the kind of pensions … Continue reading
Posted in IGC, pensions, Personality
Tagged 2017, IGC, ReAsssure, Technology, Telford, Value for Money
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The BlackRock IGC outsources to KPMG
I’ve been waiting to review BlackRock’s IGC chair statements for a couple of weeks but all I could see was a link to a report marked “April 2016”. I carelessly pressed the link this morning to find a report marked April 2017. … Continue reading
Don’t blame us punters for “unadvised drawdown”- give us an alternative!
Back in 2014, in the lead up to the launch of the pension freedoms, I wrote a blog on the perils of unadvised drawdown. I predicted then , what we see today, a large number of people trying to … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged alternative, dc, FCA, pensions, punter, risk sharing, unadvised drawdown
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Cost disclosure now! No more workplace pension NDAs!
Following Julius Pursaill’s excellent piece on value for money yesterday, I’m following up with some practical thoughts. The blog yesterday triggered a meeting with an IGC chair who probed me on the vfm scoring system that has been troubling me … Continue reading
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Tagged disclosure, FCA, IA, IGC, Julius Purssaill, NDA, Transparency, trustee
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Are pension advice tax-exemptions washed-up?
Snapped up or washed up – what’ll be left of the Finance bill? Here’s some correspondence from one of my most reliable correspondents. We’ve been told that the current finance bill (longest in history) will now be rushed through in … Continue reading
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Tagged #GE17, Antony Seely, Finance Bill, Good governance, Procedure, wash up
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Radical thoughts about “value for money” – from Julius Pursaill (aka mystery blogger)
Establishing a consensus on what “value for money” is, is proving too hard for the IGCs and Trustees, we need intervention from a “deus ex machina” (aka the FCA). Once we know the means to measure, I believe the … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged dc, IGC, mystery blogger, Standard Life, trustees, Value for Money, workplace Pensions
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Does Pension Freedom need a “disinvestment default”?
The success of auto-enrolment in encouraging 7 million new pension savers to stay in, has been attributed to the power of inertia. There may be some goodwill generated by “pension freedoms” but even workplace pension providers accept that most new … Continue reading
Snap elections – people – and policy! #GE17
Snapping people The cost of a snap general election will be highest for the politicians, their advisers and their families who lose their livelihoods on June 8th. It is tough on MPs, especially those who joined since the 5 year term … Continue reading