Monthly Archives: December 2017

When should pensions be cut in a CDC arrangement? – Con Keating

Posted on December 31, 2017 by

Or equivalently: how much risk to members’ pensions is there in mutually offered funded pension? The setting is the DB type pension (Cdb) of some fixed proportion of, say, final salary. Typically, for mature schemes these represent amounts which are … Continue reading →

Posted in CDC, pensions | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Why we are still angry about Port Talbot.

Posted on December 31, 2017 by

It’s the last day of 2017 and a time to look back at the last three months. The small picture is a series of events that have led to a general awareness that something very wrong was going on in … Continue reading →

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Some commercial considerations for CDC

Posted on December 30, 2017 by

So who’s going to “sell” CDC? What an odd question! I can see the friends of CDC choking over their cornflakes at my asking this question. In the gentile world of policy- it is rarely done to use the “s” word! … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, advice gap, CDC, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

That’s what Friends (of CDC) are for!

Posted on December 29, 2017 by

  It is not pleasant to open your phone to find 25 messages directed towards you and your colleagues trolling your work. So thanks to Alan Higham for what I hope is a message if not of support, at least … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Might young people do well from CDC?” – Con Keating’s thinking on investments.

Posted on December 28, 2017 by

In a risk-obsessed world, Con Keating observes that it’s its absence of risk-management that could be CDC’s greatest boon to the young. The new member joining a collective DC scheme is contributing marginally to a collective fund. This fund is itself … Continue reading →

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Big pension decisions need grounding.

Posted on December 28, 2017 by

    I am getting worried by the return of the word “systemic”.  It pops up in Andrew Warwick-Thompson’s (otherwise) excellent article “a misunderstood shift” and it’s behind calls from those who know better to “just ban transfers”. It would … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Tell us what value is and we’ll measure it!

Posted on December 27, 2017 by

  Donny Hay , a client Director at Pitman’s Trustees, argues cogently in this week’s Pension Expert- about recent work by Chris Sier and colleagues the cost assessment template focuses on the numbers, but says nothing about whether those costs represent … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

If you can’t be clever – have clever friends

Posted on December 27, 2017 by

Having clever friends has been the secret to whatever success I’ve had! In my third year at college in 1983, a bloke in specs appeared. His name was David Wilson and he came out drinking with us. He was a … Continue reading →

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One man’s solution to his problems with “pension freedoms”

Posted on December 26, 2017 by

David Neilly is a steelworker who has represented Port Talbot members of BSPS at Parliament.   His words count; we talk of a  pensions “industry” but this is from a man of Ravenscraig and Port Talbot. It is published with … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | 4 Comments

Resisting the irresistible; how do you stop pension transfers?

Posted on December 26, 2017 by

In my inbox is a powerful statement from a steel-worker in Port Talbot who has suggestions about how transfers from defined benefit schemes are conducted. It asks a fundamental question, if we are seeing such a number of such transfers, … Continue reading →

Posted in BSPS, pensions | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments