Category Archives: Personal Accounts

“The best way forward or the NEST way forward?”

Posted on July 28, 2016 by

If you are an employer and you have made a decision, there is no liability—that is clear in the legislation. If you have decided to go with NEST rather than NOW: or People’s, there is no liability that can fall … Continue reading →

Posted in accountants, auto-enrolment, NEST, now, pensions, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pot follows member – over a cliff?

Posted on August 27, 2015 by

There’s a great saying in racing “I’d follow that horse over a cliff”. It’s a morbid comment on most gambler’s instinct to chase losses for sentimental rather than economic reasons. When conviction sets in, then rationality is the loser and … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions, Pensions Regulator, Personal Accounts, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Helen Dean – the right person for the NEST top job.

Posted on July 6, 2015 by

Helen Dean’s appointment as the new CEO of NEST , seems to have been greeted with a stifled yawn by the Pensions Press. Helen has the lowest of profiles, no social media presence, hardly a speaking engagement and a declaration … Continue reading →

Posted in NEST, pensions, Pensions Regulator, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Is the game up for active fund management?

Posted on May 3, 2014 by

The Department for Communities and Local Government announced yesterday that £85bn of actively managed assets could be transferred to passive management and that the fund of fund structures could be collapsed into a collective investment vehicles. This is very significant … Continue reading →

Posted in advice gap, Liability Driven Investment, pension playpen, pensions, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time to be clear on what’s a good workplace pension.

Posted on January 18, 2014 by

We are losing sight of what the charges consultation is about. It is about improving pension outcomes. Continue reading →

Posted in advice gap, auto-enrolment, David Pitt-Watson, dc pensions, leadership, Payroll, pensions, Personal Accounts, stock lending | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

No smugness – NEST’s British

Posted on July 19, 2013 by

Ultimately, if NEST fails, auto-enrolment fails and if AE fails we have lost, for a generation, the opportunity to genuinely reform Britain’s long-term savings behaviour Continue reading →

Posted in NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Personal Accounts | 1 Comment

A method to chose your workplace pension scheme.

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

I’d value your feedback on a scoring system we are developing which aims to provide employers with a method of rating one pension proposition against another. We want it used by employers looking to establish a new workplace scheme, and those who … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, auto-enrolment, Change, customer service, dc pensions, First Actuarial, Payroll, pensions, Personal Accounts, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Give a straight red to active member discounts

Posted on March 30, 2013 by

What are active member discounts (AMDs) and what’s so wrong with them? Continue reading →

Posted in auto-enrolment, brand, dc pensions, Fiduciary Management, pensions, Personal Accounts, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Johnson v Keating ; a pensions heavyweight title fight

Posted on February 4, 2013 by

There are two documents sitting on my desktop this morning. The first is a paper by Con Keating. Con believes that the best way of providing pensions is collectively through large organisations who are able to offer and keep future … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, auto-enrolment, David Pitt-Watson, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, pension playpen, pensions, Personal Accounts, Personality | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

DC Trustees – asleep at the wheel?

Posted on February 3, 2013 by

I was spending insomniac hours reading posts about savings on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com when I came upon a thread about the ABI 14 agreeing to disclose transactional costs from next summer. There wasn’t much on the comments board – one post stood out. … Continue reading →

Posted in actuaries, corporate governance, David Pitt-Watson, dc pensions, First Actuarial, Management, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments