Monthly Archives: April 2018

“Lifestyle” jobs should still pay pensions!

  The latest Gig Economy case to be tested in court starts today , (Monday 30th April) Courier firm Hermes is facing action from GMB Union members. The legal action, which follows GMB’s landmark success against Uber, is on behalf of … Continue reading

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SJPEXIT and its implications.

Reading Colin Richardson’s excellent Governance Advisory Arrangement (GAA) report on SJP, I realised just how tough it is for anyone who doesn’t work for St James Place to take any sort of decision on an SJP Pension. Here – for … Continue reading

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Hargreaves Lansdown’s IGC as pretty and effective as a chocolate teapot!

    In 2015, David Grimes and the Hargreaves Lansdown IGC, delivered what remains the worst IGC report I have ever reviewed. Things improved considerably in 2016 but the IGC has not kicked on and I find the 2017 report … Continue reading

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SJP policyholders deserve an IGC. They have a great GAA – but that’s not enough!

St James Place is one of Britain’s largest financial institutions, it is a FTSE 100 company with 2017 revenues of over £9bn. It is therefore surprising that its exposure to workplace pensions is so limited that it does not need … Continue reading

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George Emsden’s journey across the channel.

Anyone who knows George Emsden, will know he is the man behind this wonderful account of his recent travels. It takes some skill to speak this well, but even more to write as well as you speak! A privilege to … Continue reading

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A way to talk to your staff about pensions

This letter can be found on the Government’s new “get to know your pension” website. If you have staff , then you may want to send them this letter – top and tailed of course! Oddly, the recommended version does … Continue reading

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Pensions and the Blue Planet

In an astonishing report “Navigating ESG – a practical guide”, the teams of the Defined Contribution Investment Forum have delivered a major contribution to our understanding of what “responsible investing” is, who wants to do it and how we can talk … Continue reading

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A blueprint for pension consolidation.

Yesterday I was reading the corporate accounts of MoneySupermaket.com. Last year, as well as generating nearly £400m of turnover and making over £100m in profit, MSM were given personal information by over half the UK adult population. 25m people volunteered … Continue reading

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Watch out for that land down under! Australia’s as confused as we are!

Australia is the land where the market never crashes. It is  a nation of double digit compulsory pension contributors , of universal pension engagement and an example to us all. Well some of this is true, but if recent reports coming out of … Continue reading

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“Financial Home for the over 50s”

Well that’s what Oliver Wyman is telling insurers with workplace pension books to aspire to be. I haven’t seen this phrase in any IGC report but it does it for me. I well remember meetings when I was at Zurich … Continue reading

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