Extending time horizons can ease short-term funding pressure, but it shifts risk toward younger members. Reform should make those intergenerational…
I've just come across this letter from Smithers, covering DB pensions in general and the USS in particular. https://smithers.co.uk/extending-the-liabilities-time-horizon-is-key-to-pensions-reform/
Great. A chance to nit-pick something from Steve Webb. The Married Woman’s Option finished in 1977, not 1978. SERPS was…
I was told by the Pensions Service, that if I divorced my husband before I retired, I would get a…
Category Archives: FCA
FCA to tame the drawdown bucking bronco!
Yesterday was a good news day for people concerned about retirement income. The FCA made two meaningful statements on what it intends to do to help ordinary people trying to manage their in retirement finances. The first was the … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, corporate governance, FCA, pensions
Tagged AgeWage, charges, Drawdown, FCA, GAA, governance, IGC, investment pathways, pensions, SIPP
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PensionBee stands up to the bullies at Aegon.
Let my people go This story begins with an interview between Adrian Grace, CEO of Aegon and Professional Adviser. Grace tells Laura Miller “The old world doesn’t work anymore. We believe that by agitating the market, there will be more … Continue reading
Posted in advice gap, FCA, IGC, pensions
Tagged Adrian Grace, Aegon, IGC, PensionBee, Romi Savova
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“Probing” IFAs is not enough; we need simpler more transparent transfers.
Allegations of “mis-selling” against IFAs are premature and unsubstantiated. My eye was caught last night by a linked in post by Andrew Warwick-Thompson, formerly of the Pensions Regulator. Here we go again. The personal pensions miss-selling scandal all over … Continue reading
It’s not just IFAs that should be livid!
Here is the note I wrote when I read New Model Advisers report On why FSCS cannot determine its current levy (uncertainty over Strand Capital) On why FSCS has to unravel its past compensation (uncertainty over Arch Cru) Today (Jan … Continue reading
Posted in accountants, advice gap, FCA, governance, pensions
Tagged FCA, FSCS, Funds, Gallium, Ken Davey, Nescape, SIPP
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Financial Regulators aren’t carved out of stone – they need a merry Christmas too!
Financial Regulation seems a brutal business, impersonal and intimidating. Necessarily, a degree of formality is needed in one’s conduct on both sides. I would not feel comfortable at the FCA’s Christmas party nor they at mine. But that does not … Continue reading
First Actuarial warns on knee-jerk reactions to the interest rate rise
With the Bank of England doubling interest rates, First Actuarial predicts a flurry of good and bad pension headlines, but warns of misguided optimism on funding and a rush for the door fuelled by pessimism about transfer values. Good news … Continue reading
Posted in actuaries, advice gap, FCA, pensions
Tagged assets, FABI, first actuarial, knee jerk, liabilities, pensions
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Three cheers for the FCA Asset Management Market Study
I got to read MS15/2.3 last night. It was a good read. It’s long and detailed but it’s key findings and remedies are short enough to be listed here. There are the remedies that need a little more consultation;- that … Continue reading
Posted in FCA, Financial Conduct Authority, First Actuarial, pensions
Tagged DWP, FCA, MS15/2.3, Treasury
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How we’re responding to the FCA’s Asset Market Study
Pension PlayPen response to the FCA Asset Management Market Study Interim Report (MS15/2.2) This response focusses on “proposed remedies” and how to make them effective. The aim of Pension PlayPen is to restore confidence in pensions, we see public confidence … Continue reading
Good retirement outcomes depend on collective solutions
The FCA have called for evidence on the likely success of our current “at retirement” strategy, this response is consistent with what this blog has been saying for some years, collective problems need collective solutions, the market is not enough, … Continue reading
Posted in CDC, David Pitt-Watson, dc pensions, defined ambition, defined aspiration, FCA, pensions
Tagged CDC, collective, Drawdown, FCA, Pension Freedoms, Pension Wise, pensions, Retirement, robo-advice, TPAS, unadvised drawdown
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Measure 4 Measure (why we rate things)
A very curious article appeared on the NOW blog yesterday, I took exception to it and wrote to NOW to tell them. You can read the article here. It’s author, the excellent Martin Olive had clearly become frustrated with “rating … Continue reading
Posted in consultant, dc pensions, FCA
Tagged auto enrolment, NOW, pensionns, workplace, workplace Pensions
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When taxation is retroactive it will change behaviour. Be careful with envy focused legislation promote real solutions to British poor…