Tag Archives: ABI

Listening up or talking down; what do you want from the Pensions Commission?

Richard points what must matter to the Pension Commission. The voices of ordinary people, many of whom suffering from fear of the future, some of whom suffering from deprivation today. Making what we have coming in , pay the bills … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Will insurer’s share prices recover- now gilt yields make buy-out easier?

I’m not sure I agree with Gordon Aitken here. Insurers may be more competitive with bulk annuity purchases but will DB pension schemes want to sell up, now they find themselves even more in surplus? Business Conditions are not always … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Standard Life buys Aegon UK for £2bn – as predicted.

We have had through the morning a stream of announcements from various parties What will this mean for the master trust and dwindling GPP market that Aegon once looked so central to. Scottish Equitable was Aegon before the Dutch bought … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Common sense should win through and pensions should not repeat past follies

The headline seems a disaster for pensions. The ABI and those preying on open DB pensions, are quick to point to the need to insure away the risk of pension paying people deferred pay  in later life. If you had … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Running a pension scheme for growth. Does it really have to be this hard?

Being away from the City , I get a perspective on the mood of pension schemes and if pension schemes are at last aware that they and the members of their schemes are being ripped off by  buy-out – then … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Why the Government must have back-stop control of pension investment

There is a general feeling that UK pension funds should be investing where they want. I agree that they should, but “how they want” is another matter. Right now there is a trend towards investing in American software, notoriously the … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Is this the best that the insurance lobby can do?

  The insurance lobby have teamed up with Pensions UK and the right wing press to derail the pension schemes bill. They have landed on a Clause 40 which gives any Government the opportunity to demand money is invested for … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Pension investment into investment trusts should not be banned

This blog used to be rude about the ABI but they complained and I am very afraid of the ABI so I took the bit about them down. Ros and Sharon are still right!      

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A smorgasbord of a budget? Could be a bit messy!

Last week was disrupted to a day in UCH under the knife, this week by  a train trip to the Isle of Skye and back and next week by the budget. To make it more disruptive, the Pension PlayPen is … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ABI’s insurers invested only 0.24% of workplace pensions in Compact assets last year

The ABI have given the market an update of the progress of insurers  in the investment of their workplace pensions. This is not quite the good news we might have been expecting. This from the Progress Update the ABI has … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment