Author Archives: henry tapper

About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman

TPR – under new management?

My blog this morning solicited three comments, all of which are worth a blog on their own I suspect that the Bank of England Financial Policy Committee recognised that the interest rate risk in DB pensions is not a natural … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

What would a Royal Mail insolvency mean for CDC?

Royal Mail bosses threaten to declare insolvency as pay talks near collapse Talks with union over pay and working practices are on brink of collapse and special administration has been explored ; The Guardian Delays with implementing Royal Mail’s CDC … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | 4 Comments

Who’s in regulatory control of DB pensions?

The Financial Policy Committee’s recommendation is that the Pensions Regulator is re-equipped with another statutory objective, to become pension’s agent for the Bank’s work on financial stability. For departing CEO, Charles Counsell, this means a handover to incoming CEO Nausicaa … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Mike Berners-Lee’s “values for our money”.

The latest Nico/Darren VFM podcast is out and features Mike Berners-Lee talking about values for our money. You can listen to it and 11 others from this link. My son, who knows about these things, reckons Mike Berners-Lee “really excellent”. … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Leave a comment

DC pensions should invest for a brighter future and ditch de-risking.

DB and DC are not the same. We have destroyed the corporate DB sector by applying the wrong rules , we are now applying the strategies that ruined DB to our DC workplace pensions. We must stop insuring and start … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Being Objective about Liability Driven Investment

  Following our blog on the costs of LDI ( https://henrytapper.com/2023/03/25/the-costs-of-ldi-keating-and-clacher/ ), we received a comment which said: “To be objective don’t you have to look at the aggregate round trip? i.e., money made from LDI since the start to … Continue reading

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

The hope for Ark pension victims is that they retain our respect.

This blog has covered the story behind the Ark pension schemes for nearly a decade. It has been a grim tale and it got grimmer last week as HMRC won a court case brought by Dalriada – the appointed Trustee … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How we turned pensions from “economic miracle” to “uniquely horrible”.

In the final years of the last millenium, defined benefit pension schemes were described by Frank Field, then a Government Minister as “Britain’s great economic miracle”.  A quarter of a century later they are described in an FT headline as … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Taxes for the rich – benefits for all

The FT’s Lex column is upset about the universal state pension which like the universal post, is the same wherever it applies in the United Kingdom While it is more expensive for the Royal Mail to deliver a letter posted … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged | 4 Comments

Shell’s failure to keep its pension promise appears in the public domain Paddy Briggs

  The senior management of Shell is used to dealing with criticism – enormous profits, high levels of remuneration for top executives and continuing criticism of their environmental record and plans come with the job. But this story on UK … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , | 2 Comments