Tag Archives: Standard Life

Let’s think of the cost of housing in retirement as a charge against our income

Information on housing in retirement has been missing from the adequacy debate generated by Pension UK’s annual report on the subject. Standard Life has produced a good report showing how much housing impacts the affordability of lifestyle’s as we stop … Continue reading

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Have funds placed in Standard’s Life PRT war-chest missed the boat?

To great acclaim ( suspect from home support), Standard Life launched last week its funding for future buy-out business. It is hard though not to agree with estimates of their capacity to compete over the past 18 month, Standard Life … Continue reading

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Life Insurers promote themselves as different but they dependably deliver the same thing!

Who to believe? Both Scottish Widows and Standard Life are advertising their products with different messages but with the same pictures, pictures of happy clients being supported by human beings and by financial technology. The financial conundrum for insurance companies … Continue reading

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An “unreal” annuity story told by insurers.

First of all the good news; annuity rates give us the best deal since we had an economic collapse in 2008. Annuity rates have reached an 18-year high of 7.75%, according to the Standard Life Annuity Rate Tracker. Second of … Continue reading

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How do we work out how much is being paid for the management of private market assets?

It’s  good to see Standard Life posting a good article on the management of funds holding assets not quoted in public markets. Are we getting value for the money we pay managers, let alone the assets that they manage? This … Continue reading

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And these life companies had mutual intent? Some can remember, some can return it.

Standard Life – an insurer adrift. Standard Life has “bought into” ReAsurre’s Midco Pension Scheme. I have written about this and you can read it here. I have published  the excellent comment received on my email yesterday. It came on … Continue reading

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A debate on the morality of Standard Life buying into its pension scheme

You may think it is a little lazy to make a blog out of other people’s comments made on a summer Sunday. But the comments are made by senior people who have experience either senior in insurance (Adrian Boulding) or … Continue reading

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Standard Life insures its own staff pension scheme; did the trustee find Standard Life’s covenant weak?

I find this hard to understand. Standard Life owns ReAssure. This buy out from the members point of view means losing upside from the pension scheme’s surplus for the reassurance (pun obvious) of an insurance policy underwritten by Standard Life. … Continue reading

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Annuities as tax-avoidance for the rich

Standard Life have prompted Alan Livesy to comment on the rise and rise of annuities as a place to invest for the rich. This of course is not a strategic change for the country, it is a tactical move from … Continue reading

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The problem with Standard Life being “Capital-lite”.

It has been known for some time that Standard Life is short of capital to play on its own against American insurance. This article was published on 22nd of April 2026, a few days later on the 29th April,  the … Continue reading

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