Category Archives: Popcorn Pensions
Pot follows member – over a cliff?
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
Re-engaging employers with their staff pensions
Once it was so simple. Good employers offered good pensions and lousy employers didn’t. The good employers congregated at NAPF conferences and congratulated themselves and an industry fed on the easy money growing within these plans. But then came lower … Continue reading
What employers can do to get their members better pensions
Yesterday I had a chance to talk with a large employer about what they can do to help improve the outcomes of their DC plans. Influencing employees to get the best out of their pension savings means getting them to … Continue reading
Beware “black-box” auto-enrolment “solutions”.
Katie Morley of the de Daily Telegraph has written an important article claiming that the occupational schemes set up to relieve the needy of their pension savings before retirement are now turning their sights on auto-enrolment. This may or may not … Continue reading
Lassitude or laxitude – 100 days of pension freedoms
“Lassitude” or “Laxitude” – what’s your judgement on how we’re carrying on? Or is this all just fine? Lassitude is a “proper” word that describes a lazy behaviour resulting from world weariness, laxitude is a made up word that describes … Continue reading
Help is on its way.
For Britain’s flummoxed pensioners- help is on its way! Continue reading
“Hope I die before I get old..?”
The quote’s from Pete Townsend and the Who’s “my generation”. It’s a brutal version of the Beatles’ “when I’m 64” but both songs are driven by the fear of getting old “will you still need, me, will you still … Continue reading
Annuity – RIP
I guess the moment I heard the news on the scrapping of compulsory annuities will stick in the memory like the moment I heard of the death of Elvis/Lennon and Princess Di. All morning we’d heard the helicopters hovering … Continue reading
All the right funds- not necessarily in the right order (a budget prescient blog)
I wrote this blog hours before the budget which abolished annuities. For some reason I decided this morning, to write about investment as if annuities didn’t exist. From 2015, for new pensioners- they will no longer be the default, … Continue reading
“What’s it like to be retired?”
It could be the trending chant at any event that Alex Ferguson turns up to – a taunt to a man who having lost control has seen slump into mundanity in a few short months. Financial wellbeing in later life … Continue reading