Category Archives: Pension Freedoms
How do we value our large DB plans?
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 Hydrant, Lunch, pension playpen, The Pensions Regulator
3 Comments
The Sun rescues readers from Benpal bedlam!
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
Posted in Pension Freedoms, pensions
Tagged bad language, Bedlam, Benpal, JLT, journalism, Language, pensions, Scottish Widows, Sun, Technology
2 Comments
Don’t blame pensions for corporate mismanagement
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 Bernard Matthews, Financial Times, ft, Insolvency, ppf, Pre-pack, Silentnight
8 Comments
Con Keating on the real cost of pension transfers
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 Bond, CETV, Con Keating, ppf, Transfer, TV, valuation
5 Comments
An algorithm cannot lie
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 auto enrolment, Business, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement, workplace pension
2 Comments
The role of the insurance market in developing Fintech
Have you thought about the risks of e-commerce? This blog talks to those interested in Fintech and in particular the promotion of the start-ups that drive innovation in financial markets. My digital start-up, Pension PlayPen is in terms of staff, … Continue reading
Posted in FinTech, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions
Tagged AIG, auto enrolment, Blufin, Confidence, FinTech, Insurance, Lloyds, Lockton, pension playpen, protection, Sage
2 Comments
A tale of two cultures (and why I’m backing payroll)
Two days, two conferences and two vastly different experiences. On Wednesday I spent a day exploring the Future of Life and Pensions with what Market Force and people I am told are financial services “C1s”. Apparently this means they’ve reached … Continue reading
Posted in governance, Pension Freedoms, pensions
Tagged Marketforce, Payroll, pension, Retirement
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Till we know the “money” – shut up about “value”.
I had a number of meeting yesterday culminating in an afternoon spent with members of the Transparency Task Force (TTF), with the FCA and with certain interested observers. I can report the meeting happened and what was said but … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Pension Freedoms, pensions, Pensions Regulator
Tagged Asset management, assets, Business, charges, costs, Money, Pay, value, Value for Money
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IGCs – a final reckoning
Here is a summary of the IGC reports analysed on this blog. If you want to read my assessments in detail, please use the search engine. I have segmented the blogs as you can see. It may be unfair to … Continue reading
Posted in governance, IGC, investment, Pension Freedoms, pensions
Tagged Asst manager, auto enrolment, CAA, FCA, governance, IGC, SIPP, TPR
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Pension Freedoms need a Pension Dashboard
Jo Cumbo asks how the Pension Freedoms are bedding down. I don’t have access to the big data of an insurer but I am 54 and am now only six months from my entitlement to blow my savings on whatever I … Continue reading