Category Archives: Pension Freedoms

What is CDC?

Posted on April 2, 2018 by

  I’ve had a couple of calls recently for a simple explanation of what CDC is and why it could be useful in Britain today. CDC is an abbreviation for Collective Defined Contribution. A CDC scheme is created by contributions … Continue reading →

Posted in CDC, Pension Freedoms, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A shot in the arm for pension payroll?

Posted on February 5, 2018 by

I write a regular column for Reward Strategy, formerly Payroll World. This is the last column I wrote for Jerome Small, who has been editor for a few years but is leaving to go freelance. The people who pay us … Continue reading →

Posted in Payroll, Pension Freedoms, pensions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A pension settlement needs general agreement.

Posted on December 11, 2017 by

I spent most of this cold dark weekend putting together a submission to the FCA on what we know is happening to millions of pounds of money that has been disinvested from the British Steel Pension Scheme and reinvested through … Continue reading →

Posted in BSPS, Pension Freedoms, pensions, Royal Mail | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Paying pensioners won’t get any easier

Posted on September 28, 2017 by

In  pensions “freedom” is the buzzword.  People can have what they want- how they want it and we all know what that means! It means that down the line there is potential for administrative chaos. Payroll depends on uniform rules, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Payroll, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Pension Food Bank for the DC saver

Posted on August 24, 2017 by

Ok – so it’s not a big news week for pensions , but well done Jack Gilbert of Citywire’s New Model Adviser for getting a meet with Frank Field, and well reported on what I can only call a “welcome … Continue reading →

Posted in accountants, actuaries, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How do we value our large DB plans?

Posted on August 7, 2017 by

  Today’s Pension Play Pen lunch (at the Hydrant pub not the Counting House) will discuss how best we value our large DB plans. What do we mean by large DB plans? I guess there are a number of big … Continue reading →

Posted in Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions, Pensions Regulator | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Sun rescues readers from Benpal bedlam!

Posted on May 8, 2017 by

    We have JLT – Professional Pension’s “Administrator of the Year 2017” to thank for this headline. I can now reveal that the nonsense that inspired the Sun to question what was going on with the default investment fund … Continue reading →

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Don’t blame pensions for corporate mismanagement

Posted on April 10, 2017 by

The FT has come up with some excellent research on why pensions find their way into the Pension Protection Fund. It has discovered that a substantial proportion of the so-called “pension failures” over the past ten years, resulted from sale … Continue reading →

Posted in Pension Freedoms, pensions, Pensions Regulator | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Con Keating on the real cost of pension transfers

Posted on January 3, 2017 by

  Imagine buying a bond at par, say a ten-year, ten-percent coupon issue; then let five years pass, when market interest rates decline to one percent. At this time, the bond is trading in the market at £143.68 percent. Now, … Continue reading →

Posted in Pension Freedoms, pensions, Retirement, trustee | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

An algorithm cannot lie

Posted on September 25, 2016 by

  An algorithm cannot lie; it will tell you what you set it to tell you with the data you fed it. It has no choice, it is entirely deterministic;- and yet algorithms can help you lie. Let’s take a … Continue reading →

Posted in NEST, Pension Freedoms, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments