Author Archives: henry tapper

About henry tapper

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

Inconvenient truths – Clacher and Keating

Posted on September 22, 2023 by henry tapper

On Thursday 21st September, the ONS released the results of the latest results of the Financial Survey of Pension Schemes, which reports on occupational pension schemes to the end of March 2023.[1] From this, it is evident that the rebalancing … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

“Saving the state pension” – hope for nextgen from Soumaya Keynes

Posted on September 22, 2023 by henry tapper

  If I was ever asked to judge a financial journalism award , I would nominate, vote for and present an award to Soumaya for this piece. I don’t know the journalist and assumed I was clicking on another article … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged | Leave a comment

Australians struggle with their “complex” pension system

Posted on September 22, 2023 by henry tapper

 We like to think of the Australian pension system as a great success, but this post suggests that it suffers from what I suspect is a global problem. While people understand the simple idea of a “wage in retirement”, … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | 2 Comments

Sunak’s cynical vote-grab at odds with the purpose of pensions.

Posted on September 21, 2023 by henry tapper

Politicians come and go, but pension funds precede and succeed them.  The money in them matters, not just to politicians but to the people who benefit from them and the planet they will retire on. Yesterday, the British Prime Minister … Continue reading →

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

Truell mothballs Pension SuperFund as patience runs out.

Posted on September 21, 2023 by henry tapper

I am sorry to read that after sinking “the best part of £50m” of his and his family’s money into Pension Superfund , Edi Truell is moth-balling the project. Government delays have real consequences for those who have responded positively … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | 2 Comments

I went for a GMP makeover at Brightwell

Posted on September 20, 2023 by henry tapper

  A group of large pension schemes are launching what they claim to be a free service communicating changes to Guaranteed Minimum Pensions. I went to find how. There are many exciting things happening in pensions but changes to Guaranteed … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Pension Attention playbacks Timmy Mallett

Posted on September 20, 2023 by henry tapper

NEWS | Mallett’s Mallet rebooted to give UK a pensions wake up call 📢 80s favourite, @TimmyMallett, is the next celeb to pick up the pensions megaphone as he calls on UK to take an Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny look … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | 1 Comment

Pension scams – past present and future – David Brooks

Posted on September 20, 2023 by henry tapper

If you missed David Brooks’ excellent presentation to the Pension PlayPen yesterday – or if you simply want to download his slides – here’s the link to the slides and here’s a recording of the event. Next week – Tom … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Leave a comment

A good day for auto-enrolment saving.

Posted on September 20, 2023 by henry tapper

The enabling legislation is now in place for the 2017 auto-enrolment reforms to be put in place. We have a small number of dedicated politicians to thank for this, including Ros Altmann. It was an honour to steer the Extension … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Leave a comment

The PPF – a victim of excess tenderness?

Posted on September 20, 2023 by henry tapper

  The FT sees a backlash from business as Pension Protection Fund’s reserves swell to more than £12bn.  The PPF is consulting on halving its levy from £200m to £100m pa, but many are saying this is too little and … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | 3 Comments