Tag Archives: Commission

5 good reasons we have SJP

As readers of the Times know,  James Coney has been exposing St James’s Place as a high pressure sales outfit that rewards its “advisers” with diamond cufflinks, overseas conventions and a lot of money for bringing client’s money under SJP … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Commission – the charge that dare not speak its name.

I feel like someone walking to a destination with a blindfold on, I am getting information from my phone but it is intermittent and there are many obstacles that I stumble over as I walk along. Thankfully, there are people … Continue reading

Posted in BSPS, dc pensions, Financial Conduct Authority, pensions | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Who moved my cliche? The sorry state of the “employee benefits market”

  I was suffeciently underwhelmed by the “vibrant employee benefits live exhibition” last week to stay just 20 minutes. Bearing in mind the Boris Bike ride from the City to Kensington Olympia, this represented a poor return on my time. … Continue reading

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So what would a pension exit charge cap look like?

Yesterday I spoke on Money Box in support of a cap on exit fee penalties from legacy personal pensions. Claire Trott spoke well in opposition and I’m quite sure that the ABI will take comfort in her argument that a … Continue reading

Posted in actuaries, dc pensions, Pension Freedoms, pensions, Pensions Regulator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Would you buy a recovering alcoholic a large vodka?

Offering IFAs the prospect of commission is akin to running a meeting of alcoholics anonymous in a pub. Continue reading

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Helping employers with pensions – you don’t have to be an IFA!

Since RDR in January 2013, the number of IFAs operating in Britain has more than halved from 50 to 24,000. The ban on commission or its sibling “consultancy charging” has made it all but impossible for IFAs to make money … Continue reading

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Bringing down the cost of advice #FAMR

The Financial Advice Market Review asks whether Britain can bridge the advice gap for those people who “want to work hard, do the right thing and get on in life but do not have significant wealth”, strip out the political … Continue reading

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The forgotten victims of commission

While the arguments about the abolition of commission for auto-enrolment pensions (from April 2016) are clear-cut, the fate of policies which aren’t used for auto-enrolment – isn’t. This is particularly the case for commission based occupational pension schemes. This week, … Continue reading

Posted in dc pensions, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in annuity, Payroll, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dear Government- “Five do’s, five don’ts” – #pensions

For those slipping quietly into retirement in the UK the political promises are about the revaluation of your state benefits, the payment of your winter allowance and the tax treatment of your savings and income. Whatever you have done or not … Continue reading

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