Tag Archives: Investment management

Double vision – a startling new blog from Ralph Frank

The latest Command Paper, ‘Better workplace pensions: Putting savers’ interests first’, has recently been published.  This Command Paper follows prior consultations by the Department for Work and Pensions (“DWP”) on charges, transparency and quality standards in workplace defined contribution pension … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, dc pensions, pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We knew we were cheating our clients.

  Mark Wood (now of JLT and formerly of the Prudential) is calling on insurers to relax the early exit penalties on pension contracts set up in the “bad old days” when commission was paid in advance for premiums paid … Continue reading

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

“Open Government isn’t an idea, it’s an action”

When you walk into the DWP’s offices in Westminster, you are greeted with a montage of Male, Pale and Stale mug-shots of politicians and permanent secretaries who are the DWP’s big wigs. Very 1980s – very Sir Humphrey! But that’s … Continue reading

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

Pension PlayPen needs your digits.

  Digital marketing is something we’re having to learn as we go along. We’ve got to find 1,000,000 employers who don’t have a workplace pension and convince them of the importance of paying some attention to what their staff invest … Continue reading

Posted in Facebook, Linkedin, pension playpen, pensions, Personality, twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sign up for The First Actuarial Monkey League -2014 !

  You can save yourself reading 644 words of Pension Plowman pontification and sign up for the Monkey League here. Or you can read the blog and take your decisions at the end.   Here’s why I’m promoting our Monkey … Continue reading

Posted in Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Education, First Actuarial, monkey league, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Providers cherry picking pension customers? Whatever next!

Money Marketing is reporting that insurers are cherry picking the workplace pensions they take on . That this is news says a lot for the appalling lack of underwriting applied by insurers to the pricing of new business in this market over … Continue reading

Posted in brand, Payroll, pensions, Pensions Regulator | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Ring out the old – ring in the new”- who will be our investment fiduciaries in retirement?

Yesterday I went to the Schroders DC Challenge conference which was all about “delivering value and certainty” to retirement savers. I left enlightened by some interesting debates and one or two talks. I’ll share with you three observations that I … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, Change, Financial Education, Henry Tapper blog, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is the game up for active fund management?

The Department for Communities and Local Government announced yesterday that £85bn of actively managed assets could be transferred to passive management and that the fund of fund structures could be collapsed into a collective investment vehicles. This is very significant … Continue reading

Posted in advice gap, Liability Driven Investment, pension playpen, pensions, Personal Accounts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fundless fund platforms?

Over the past fifteen years, new technology has brought us the fund platform, open architecture and unlimited choice. It has not brought us good fund governance and that’s what’s round the corner. But we are about to find that the … Continue reading

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

Why employers cannot be “provider agnostic” about their workplace pension.

At http://www.pensionplaypen.com, we are horrified by the slapdash way in which employers are choosing workplace pensions and the complacency of their advisers who seem solely intent on selling payroll and HR middleware. Continue reading

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