A very timely and important message to all employers and employee benefit consultants, whatever the size of the employer! In…
It seems to me that a pensions think tank, funded by pension industry stakeholders, will naturally scope the question as…
The idea that a pensioner has "complete control over cash flows" is naive because it omits the awkward fact that…
Sadly we allowed the "lay trustee" to be written into our law eg the Trustee Act 2000. And rather than…
Tag Archives: Scottish Widows
Wanted for listing – IGC/GAA Chair reports
Pension Plowman’s Directory At this week’s Stewardship meeting of the transparency task force, someone asked if there was a Directory of the IGC’s that have been published so far. There wasn’t until then, but I sent round the links of … Continue reading
Posted in IGC, pensions
Tagged Abbey Life, Black Rock, DWP, FCA, Friends Life, IGC, pension, pensions, Phoenix, Prudential, Royal London, Scottish Widows, Standard Life, workplace Pensions
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Scottish Widows IGC – papering over the cracks
Scottish Widows IGC Chairman’s report is out and if you are a member of a Scottish Widows workplace pension you shouldn’t feel comforted by the words of its Chair Babloo Ramamurthy Although the IGC has carefully scrutinised the various elements of … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged auto enrolment, DWP, Financial services, Government, IGC, Lloyds Banking Group, pensions, Retirement, Scottish Widows, workplace pension
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Creative Pension Trust – we asked – we got!
Last week I asked whether anything was going on at Creative Pension Trust, following a rumour of a split with Scottish Widows. Well I asked and I got.. I got a joint statement from both parties (and a phone call … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Creative auto-enrolment, Creative Pension Trust, Scottish Widows
3 Comments
State Street and People’s – a lack of “emissional” intelligence?
I am not very happy that People’s Pension has chosen State Street to manage the money under its master trust. In early 2014, State Street were found guilty of over-charging a variety of pension funds and were fined by the … Continue reading
Posted in NEST, pensions, Pensions Regulator, smelly, State Street
Tagged advice, annuity, auto enrolment, babloo ramamurthy, Business, DWP, Financial services, National Employment Savings Trust, NEST, pension, Pension new, pension playpen, Pension Regulator, pensions, People's Pension, Scottish Widows, State Street
2 Comments
Don’t underestimate SME’s hunger for investment know-how!
I am frustrated by the capitulation of many in the pension industry to the challenge faced by inducting 1.2m new employers into our funded pension culture. The Pension Apartheid practiced by the investment elite At a recent event, Joanne Segers, CEO … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Education, First Actuarial, Pension Freedoms, pension playpen, pensions, Pensions Regulator
Tagged Aviva, democracy, Fidelity, Investment, L&G, NEST, NOW, Pensions Trust, People's Pension, Scottish Widows, Smarter Pensions, Standard Life, Zurich
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Time for the insurers to pipe down and get on with it!
I like Jamie Jenkins of Standard Life, he’s a canny operator who shapes arguments to suit Standard Life very agreeably. His style is laconic, his humour dry and his observations are succinct and to the point. So I enjoyed … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Aegon, pipe down, Scottish, Scottish Life, Scottish Widows, Standard Life
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Post budget capacity challenge for insurers
Scottish Widows boss Toby Strauss has told the Telegraph that his company is already facing a capacity crunch as it digests the impact of legislative changes over the past two years and faces the challenges of 2015. The … Continue reading
Posted in annuity, auto-enrolment, brand, pensions
Tagged ABI, annuity, Business, dc pensions, Defined benefit pension plan, DWP, Employment, Financial services, first actuarial, pension, Pension new, pension playpen, Retirement, Scottish Widows, Society, Strategy, the Telegraph, toby strauss
14 Comments
Simplicity is not the same as clarity- what Josh is telling young entrepreneurs about pensions!
With recent developments within the pension system, this is an exciting time to be involved in the industry because the recent changes are so fundamental that the landscape changing dramatically. Savers in DC schemes will no longer be required to … Continue reading
Posted in Accelerator, advice gap, auto-enrolment, pensions
Tagged Accelerator, auto enrolment, NACUE, Scottish Widows
1 Comment
Too big to worry about – what’s should we do about State Street?
I wrote yesterday about State Street’s £22.9m fine from the FCA for stealing $20.2m from 6 large clients. Whether this was all the money stolen or whether these were the clients who they found out about is not mentioned. We’ll … Continue reading
Posted in NEST
Tagged Business, dc pensions, Employment, Government, Insurance, NEST, pension, Scottish Widows, SSgam, State Street
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What a charge cap would mean for insurers
the Embedded Value write offs if the cap comes in at 0.5% will be in the £bns Continue reading
There may be more fundamental issues with the US markets. In a recent article Smithers is highly critical of the 2013…