Tag Archives: ft

So who IS accountable for your pension returns?

Posted on September 15, 2017 by

  The little I can remember of my O level maths was the dictum “show your working”. It is a primitive call for what we call an “audit trail”, allowing the marker to find out how wrong you were or … Continue reading →

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Fund managers -Norma Cohen is still watching!

Posted on September 1, 2017 by

  The great British financial journalist Norma Cohen rarely publishes in the FT these days, when she does, it is to great effect. This week she published a quiet and thoughtful piece on the impact MIFID II is having on … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, David Pitt-Watson, economics, journalism, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Is the mood music on DB transfers changing?

Posted on July 22, 2017 by

The irrational exuberance that characterised the FT’s pension transfer seminar in the spring may have marked a high-water mark in the rush to liberate. Martin Woolf and Merryn Somerset-Webb urged us to take our pension in our own hands (or … Continue reading →

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John Kay – practical solutions to the FCA’s problems – please!

Posted on June 30, 2017 by

Passive management must be valued In a lukewarm response to the FCA’s Asset Management Market study, John Kaye comments.  Greater transparency of charges will do little harm, but will also make little difference. Those customers who do focus on price … Continue reading →

Posted in pensions, advice gap, workplace pensions | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A make or break week for UK investors

Posted on June 26, 2017 by

Are fund managers the new bankers? If you’ve read the excellent  (draft) FCA Asset Management Market Study, you’d be forgiven to think they were – (and that investment consultants were their knowing flunkies). The question now is how far the FCA … Continue reading →

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Get us baby-boomers back to work!

Posted on May 15, 2017 by

  The photo is of two college friends who had a full page splash in this weekend’s Sunday Times. Alison, was born a few days before me and we were at College together, Matthew met her at Mckinsey in the … Continue reading →

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Why we’re forever blowing (transfer) bubbles!

Posted on April 28, 2017 by

    It’s a shame that Alistair Cunningham’s thought-piece on behavioural bias’ encouraging herds of us to “cash-out” our DB pensions, is behind a pay-wall. If you are an FT subscriber you can use the link at the end of … Continue reading →

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Don’t blame pensions for corporate mismanagement

Posted on April 10, 2017 by

The FT has come up with some excellent research on why pensions find their way into the Pension Protection Fund. It has discovered that a substantial proportion of the so-called “pension failures” over the past ten years, resulted from sale … Continue reading →

Posted in Pension Freedoms, pensions, Pensions Regulator | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Are defaults enough? Or do we need compulsion?

Posted on March 7, 2017 by

  Well I’m back from 10 days in India where I saw the very rich and the very poor but not much in the middle. I saw some very fine architecture which showed me what can be done when people … Continue reading →

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Is there a”pensions opposition”? Thoughts on #TUCpensions

Posted on February 2, 2017 by

I wasn’t at the TUC Conference, having a Conservative membership has closed a few doors and I didn’t want to make some awkward by insisting. My colleague Hilary Salt spoke and the event was capably relayed by Josephine Cumbo and others. … Continue reading →

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