Monthly Archives: November 2017
Why are workplace pensions excluded from transfer advice?
NEST gets us thinking Gavin Perera-Betts work for NEST, he’s the chief customer officer – the person charged with helping people get the most out of their savings and he’s the author of NEST’s recent response to the Government’s Select Committee … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, BSPS, pensions
Tagged BSPS, CETV, Gavin Perera-Betts, NEST, pensions, tata, TPAS, TPR
13 Comments
“Transparency” needs to do some work.
I worry the work on transparency is hypothetical – that it lacks practical application – that it has no immediate value to the consumer. But then I think of the conversations I’ve been having with consumers – these past four … Continue reading
Posted in BSPS, pensions
Tagged BSPS, CETV, Outsourcing, pension, Prufund, Transfer, TVAS
6 Comments
Advice to WTW, Aon, Mercer and the denounced.
Sit down- shut up! This is my advice to WTW, Mercer and Aon who are facing the Competition and Market Authority’s probe into their behaviour as investment consultants. They are reported in the FT “denouncing the FCA’s flawed report” that got them in this … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
6 Comments
“Certainty and Security”; a message for British Steel Pensioners.
This is a message to British Steel Pensioners who may be feeling uncertain about the British Steel Pension Scheme. The message is simple, you have two secure options, the BSPS2 and the PPF, for most of you BSPS2 will be … Continue reading
Nice perk if you can get it! Pension Exclusion in the UK.
When Guy Opperman became Pensions Minister , he close to have the words ” financial inclusion” inserted into his title, now is the time for him to prove his title’s worth. According to Government statistics, there are 675,000 of us … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, Big Government, pensions
Tagged Guy Opperman, National Insurance, pension, pensions, salary exchange, salary sacrifice, Taxation
5 Comments
Cost and value of advice in Port Talbot
Al Rush and I drove down to Wales yesterday and spent a day in the Taibach Rugby club at the invitation of the moderators of the BSPS Facebook groups. Good chatting with steelworkers in Taibach. Met up with a schoolmate … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, pensions
Tagged advice, BSPS, CETV, financial advice, independent financial advice, pensions, Port Talbot, Taibach
6 Comments
Work and pensions are boring – getting paid is never boring
This article first appeared in Reward Strategy. It’s a thank you to the people in payroll who have made a boring pension person a little more chirpy! Readers who went to the CIPP conference and award dinner, will know … Continue reading
Salary Sacrifice – a foot in the door for the poorly pensioned?
Everybody knows that the pension tax-relief system is heavily weighted in favour of the have’s who get big income tax incentives. It is weighted against the low waged who can get excluded from contribution incentives altogether. Steve Webb, who thinks … Continue reading
Posted in accountants, actuaries, advice gap, pensions
Tagged auto enrolment, HMRC, net-pay, pensions, relief at source, salary sacrifice, Steve Webb
15 Comments
Con Keating -“CDC is no hardy perennial”
A critic of CDC began a recent blog with: “Collective Defined Contribution is a hardy perennial”, which, to my mind, is only appropriate for a scheme of arrangement capable of delivering pension benefits more efficiently and equitably than any … Continue reading
Flunking financial literacy – it’s a global thing!
Amin Rajan is a clever man and he has written a very good article in the FT that starts The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s recent exposure of the abuses around the 2015 pension freedoms that enable people to cash in their gold-plated … Continue reading
Posted in CDC, pensions
Tagged annuity, CDC, Financial literacy, pensions, Scheme Pensions, state pension
1 Comment