Monthly Archives: April 2018

“Lifestyle” jobs should still pay pensions!

Posted on April 30, 2018 by

  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 →

Posted in auto-enrolment, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

SJPEXIT and its implications.

Posted on April 29, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

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

Posted on April 28, 2018 by

    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 →

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 28, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

George Emsden’s journey across the channel.

Posted on April 27, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in pensions | Tagged | 1 Comment

A way to talk to your staff about pensions

Posted on April 27, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in pensions | 2 Comments

Pensions and the Blue Planet

Posted on April 27, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in pensions, responsible investing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A blueprint for pension consolidation.

Posted on April 26, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

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

Posted on April 25, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Financial Home for the over 50s”

Posted on April 24, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in Payroll, pensions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment