Tag Archives: annuity

Why I’m backing the master trust assurance framework

Back in May 2014, the Pension Regulator launched on an unsuspecting world the ICAEW’s Technical Release “Assurance reporting on master trusts”. At the time I was dismissive of this document and the Master Trust Assurance Framework (MAF). Write in haste , … Continue reading

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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

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We had it coming!

I haven’t read the reaction of the pension hierarchy to the Treasury’s consultation on the future of pension tax relief – I don’t have to. Steve Bee’s tweet “I don’t want to spend the rest of my time on this … Continue reading

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When the dust settles…

For the second time in two years, George Osborne has produced a budget that will radically change the way we thing about retirement saving. If 2014 was the year we re-thought the way we spent our retirement spending, 2015 asks … Continue reading

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Tee Time?

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with Michael Johnson about what he thought the budget’s proposals for pensions would be. He reminded me of this paper he had sent me in April and suggested that the Budget would be … Continue reading

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The future of pension regulation – Andrew Tarrant

Andrew Tarrant was a personal advisor to Gregg McClymont in the previous parliamentary term. A Kiwi lawyer he has the distinction of having sung in New Zealand’s only serious punk band. I have had the privilege of reading this substantial piece of … Continue reading

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Source Pensions – a tough lesson for auto-enrolment.

Over the weekend , the Telegraph published a story about Source Pensions . In the article it correctly claims that many pension savers have been automatically enrolled into illegal schemes. Source Pensions admit this is “regrettable”, I agree, You can read … Continue reading

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Should workplace pensions have a duty of candour?

We seem to have learned nothing from the Office of Fair Trading report on workplace pensions. In case you’ve forgotten, the OFT reported they’d never encountered such  poor purchasing as with employers purchasing pensions for their staff. What has been … Continue reading

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Supply-side woes , buy-side goes; the disappearing pension billions

It’s not hard to spend a billion, not if you’re a nation that knows how to spend but finds it hard to save. As Osborne found, a generation of planning can be unwound in a minute. Were the tax rules … Continue reading

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Is commission really dying?

There has been nothing that has so harmed the image of pensions over the past thirty years as the deception of commission. I don’t want to use phrases such as “lack of transparency” or words like “opacity” words like these … Continue reading

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