Tag Archives: Stock market

Who’ll win this Pension Referendum?

We are about to have a pensions referendum. Votes will be cast not at the ballot box but through an obscure process known as “the opt-out“. Over the next five years , more than 5m people, around 20% of the … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

SHOULD INVSTORS BE PREPARED TO PAY FOR CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT?

This is the question we’ll be debating at today’s pension play pen lunch. I’m a little daunted . I’ve read Professor John Kay‘s excellent paper about how equities work, should work and why they could work better. He’s in the middle … Continue reading

Posted in Bankers, Change, corporate governance, FSA, happiness, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Unexpected risks – people just don’t get pensions (education).

We’re all aware that investing in the stockmarket is a “risky” business, it’s easy to understand how the sharp falls in stock markets impact on your savings and as stock market falls are the staple of media reporting, it’s not surprising that … Continue reading

Posted in annuity, Bankers, corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, de-risking, Fiduciary Management, FSA, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Retail Distribution Review, Retirement, Treasury | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The man from Yamaichi said no

Sometime in 1993 I was advising a bunch of traders at Yamaichi Securities a now defunct Japanese trading house in the City. The Japanese equity markets were in a tailspin (from which they have not recovered) but the markets they were trading … Continue reading

Posted in Bankers, corporate governance, Fiduciary Management, NEST, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

You can’t buy a sausage with a brick

Abe Bacchus, the guy who taught me to sell life insurance in 1984, used this great phrase when a  prospect objected to creating a “capital reservoir” for the future. Of course a geared investment into bricks and mortar over the … Continue reading

Posted in dc pensions, de-risking, NEST, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Yes – things are this bad in DC land!

We all know that equity markets have sent the value of our pension savings into free fall and some people understand that low prospective interest rates mean the amount of pension you can buy from your savings has fallen lower. But did … Continue reading

Posted in annuity, dc pensions, de-risking, pension playpen, pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Nuts traced as market collapses – @ #ppshow

£64bn fell off the shares of the London stock market today. Meanwhile we were holed up in the Excel Centre, listening to the views of the great and the good.. Here are my good buddies Colin Wilson and David Harris. It … Continue reading

Posted in corporate governance, de-risking, pension playpen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

There are better ways to de-risk than ETVs

The only pension schemes which you cannot transfer out of are the Basic State Pension, State Second Pension and NEST (yes – odd that a DC plan is in that mix). Continue reading

Posted in corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, de-risking, EU Solvency II, Liability Driven Investment, NEST, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments