Tag Archives: Insurance

Why DB pension promises may need a credit rating.

How do you rate the creditworthiness of your scheme’s funding? Trustees of defined benefit schemes now have to properly assess the employer’s ability (and willingness) to fund the promises made to the members of the scheme. The assessment helps them in negotiations with the … Continue reading

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Money in auto-enrolment? – the jury’s out!

This morning and regularly over the next few weeks, I will be speaking at Money Marketing Auto-Enrolment invitational events around Britain. These are the slides that I will  be using   Advisers and auto enrolment from Henry Tapper It’s odd … Continue reading

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How challenging? We are IGC

I love it when you get “Pension News” from a lawyer. The latest gem comes from Pinsent Masons, who reveal that the FCA expects Independent Governance Committees to challenge insurance companies. This is what I call a “not news” story … Continue reading

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Preparing the pocket to pick; a great guest blog from Ralph Frank

  Multiple changes to the regulations governing the UK pensions landscape were announced in 2014. The most positive of these changes, in my opinion, related to the issues of transparency and governance. The ‘charges cap’ enjoyed the greatest prominence of … Continue reading

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Good news from the Regulators

          It has been an important week for the regulation of workplace pensions. Not only have the DWP published the rules that govern workplace pensions qualifying to be used for auto-enrolment, but the FCA  published – … Continue reading

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Can we afford financial services in times of austerity?

  Thomas Philippon , the celebrated economist, gave a lecture on Tuesday Morning as part of London University’s Leading Minds series. The gist of his talk is that the cost of financial services (the collective name for everyone who is an … Continue reading

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De-risking strategy found in pocket of comatose trustee

  The Pension Plowman rifling through the pockets of a trustee lying in the gutter following an all night pension celebration , has found too documents, the first a copy of Corporate Adviser the full text of which can be … Continue reading

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Protecting against losses is not the same as generating a profit – guest blog from Ralph Frank

  The Swiss National Bank’s (“SNB’s”) decision to abandon the currency ceiling of the Franc relative to the Euro has drawn attention to risk management and hedging. The losers from the SNB’s actions, including retail leveraged trading platforms, investment banks … Continue reading

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What should employers do about pensions?

Employers pay pensions – don’t they? It’s baked into the DNA of Government social policy that a part of the welfare system is managed by employers prepared to fund an employee benefit that provides a certain income in retirement. So … Continue reading

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How competitive is our private pension system?

    We are three months away from the launch of the new pension freedoms and not much is happening. There ain’t nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees! NEST has issued a lengthy consultation on what it should … Continue reading

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