Monthly Archives: October 2019

Political on twitter? Stick to the issues please.

Is this a political ad? 44 days until we get Jeremy into Downing St. Are you ready to be part of the most ambitious campaign for change this country has ever seen? pic.twitter.com/44R3bxd4Id — Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) October 29, … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | 5 Comments

Halloween stuff – “Superstition ain’t the way”.

Six out of ten Americans hold “new age” beliefs and I doubt it’s much different in the UK. I have never- NEVER – heard a financial services firm openly prey on our superstition, but irrational behaviour underpins most of our … Continue reading

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Willis Towers Watson – thinking for us on pensions

I’d like to draw your attention to  an important study from Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Insitute. It’s called shifts for the DC organisation of tomorrow. The study asks questions of pension providers around the world. It comes to one … Continue reading

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

We almost got a pensions dashboard….

It now seems unlikely that parliament will complete reading the Pensions Bill. The Bill introduces compulsion on employers to provide data to a pensions dashboard and it gives CDC the green light, at first for the Royal Mail and later … Continue reading

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Brexit? Time may be the healer yet.

A parliament united by what it doesn’t want Boris Johnson has finally admitted he has abandoned his “do or die” on October 31st Brexit policy, after MPs voted for the Benn Act to secure an extension to the Article 50 … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | 2 Comments

IFAs must explore other advisory models to survive and prosper.

Martin Bamford is precisely the spokesperson financial advisers need. He bridges the gap between the worlds people like me and Clive Waller grew up in, a world where “get rich quick” was the primary driver, to a different one, one … Continue reading

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Pension tax transparency a long way off

    The malaise  with pension taxation goes much deeper than the immediate symptoms, the complexity of the Annual and Lifetime allowances, the obscurity of the money purchase annual allowance and the perversity of the running both net pay and … Continue reading

Posted in pensions, steve webb, Treasury | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dr Kate Lovett can’t afford her pension.

A psychiatric consultant finds herself paying more in tax than she earns. A spokesperson for the pensions industry opines. I understand Dr Kate Lovett has has a large increase in her DB pension, which breaches the Annual Allowance pension rules … Continue reading

Posted in NHS, Pension Freedoms, pensions | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

“Scrap the taper?” Hopes dashed.

Hopes now dashed for an update on the tapered annual allowance review, which was anticipated in the Budget. https://t.co/53xfAqdosT — Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) October 24, 2019 Sky and BBC agree Govt cancels the Budget —— Treasury source says: “Parliament has … Continue reading

Posted in accountants, pensions, Ros Altmann | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How dashboardS manage “the invulnerable tide”.

  I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that the Government can no more prevent the proliferation of dashboards as Canute could have controlled the waves of the sea. A better analogy than Canute is Cuchulain, the mad Irish Warrior who died … Continue reading

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