Category Archives: happiness

Triple lock? – easy!

With a deft tweet , former Pensions Minister Steve Webb wakes us up to a startling economic revelation. Doesn’t seem long since we were reading doom-laden warnings about the National Insurance Fund ‘running out of money’ in a few years. … Continue reading

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

Isn’t this what millennials really want in the workplace? @locktoninfo

Although Pension PlayPen and First Actuarial do our work for employers and trustees, we rely on our partner- Lockton – to do the heavy lifting on workplace benefits. Here’s the first of two articles on what they’re research tells them … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, Financial Education, governance, happiness, pensions | 3 Comments

Strange ideas – Con Keating debunks pension’s received wisdom

A number of extremely strange beliefs have emerged in the course of correspondence arising from earlier articles that introduced methods for the evaluation of pension liabilities which do not invoke any external factor. Take the idea of using market prices … Continue reading

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Magic beans and “negative capability”

Negative capability describes the capacity of human beings to transcend and revise their contexts. If we dismiss it as “magic beans” we are committed to repeating the mistakes of the past – and- as we all know – that way is madness. Continue reading

Posted in Change, corporate governance, drawdown, Financial Education, happiness, Pension Freedoms | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Any questions on the Guidance Guarantee?

  This blog is about a conversation I had with the Pension Advisory Service. Following it I promised to feed back questions to TPAS about the Guidance Guarantee. The blog contains questions I want asking , some background on TPAS and … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, Guidance, happiness, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

If we can provide health screening – we can provide pension guidance

  Organising the Guidance Guarantee is a daunting task but it is no more daunting than many public welfare initiatives. Each year the NHS screens and advises millions of us on a variety of health issues. From STDs to Breast … Continue reading

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Governance not glumervance

I am for good DC governance but I am not for DC glumervance. Glumervance is “glum governance” as preached by the puritan new model trustee. This is how on trustee firm explained the new measures for savers in the DWP Command Paper “the … Continue reading

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Are workplace pensions all the same?

I don’t believe that the majority of the workplace pension providers in the market today are ready to give up on innovation,competition and reputation. Continue reading

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A race to the top?

We will not get this problem sorted out in a meeting room in the DWP, though the DWP can clear the decks and allow us to operate with a clean sheet of paper. Continue reading

Posted in actuaries, annuity, CDC, Change, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, happiness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ten sexy stats that drive pension firms wild!

But if you think your workforce special, you’ll want to get a whole of market quote. You wouldn’t insure your business assets or your liabilities any other way. Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, auto-enrolment, dc pensions, happiness, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments