Tag Archives: corporate governance

Come on Sage – you can and should do better!

Sage are a great British success story. Over the past 20 years they have become pre-eminent as a payroll software supplier and latterly a portal for a range of back-office business solutions. Www.pensionplaypen.com is itself a business customer, using SagePay … Continue reading

Posted in Payroll, Salford Quays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

Posted in Payroll, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions, Pensions Regulator, Popcorn Pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“We all defer together?” – Guest Blog from Ralph Frank

The recently announced consultation on pensions tax relief has stirred up thought and debate on the issue of incentivising long-term saving.  There are theoretical, commercial and practical aspects to be addressed in this process of defining an approach to pensions … Continue reading

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

The transfer mess gets worse…

It’s been some weeks since I wrote about transfers. To recap, I have been predicting a seizure in the transfer market , resulting from high demand, low-advisory capacity and pipes blocked with regulatory effluent. So it doesn’t come as a … Continue reading

Posted in Treasury, trustee | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Don’t you -forget about DB – guest blog from the TUC

This blog is written by Tim Sharp of the  TUC, thanks to Hilary Salt for pointing it out and for Tim and the TUC for allowing us to republish it! It is easy to overlook defined benefit (DB) pension schemes … Continue reading

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

Why “pensions ISAs” must be more than ISAs

Ros Altmann has recently commented that simply topping up ISAs and calling them “Pension ISAs” is not going to help solve our long-term retirement problems. The danger of using the ISA structure is that it ignores the fundamentals- that people … Continue reading

Posted in pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Pension PlayPen’s response to the Treasury on pension tax-relief

The Treasury has asked eight great questions which go to the heart of how we incentivise pension saving. Here are our responses. We haven’t formally sent these responses to the Treasury yet, so if you have any comments, please send … Continue reading

Posted in pensions, Pensions Regulator, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Trust me , I’m a scorpion”

I was born at 11.02am on 11th November 1961, according to my star chart ,the sun, the moon, all the houses and for all I know Planet Pluto are in Scorpio, which makes me a little worried. This is no … Continue reading

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

Pensioner First

A consistent theme of the pension reforms we have witnessed over the past five years has been a focus on the consumer of pension savings – the pensioner. Set in the wider context of welfare policy, the proposals to re-align … Continue reading

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

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

Posted in auto-enrolment, Payroll, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment