Popular News
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FCA reassures Hartley clients after ‘concerning’ letter
The Financial Conduct Authority has reassured Hartley Pensions clients following a letter sent by the joint administrators over the unauthorised movement of monies from their SIPPs by Hartley.
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FCA delays SDR for portfolio managers
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has delayed its plans to apply sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) to portfolio managers.
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Industry urged to probe pensioner spending habits
Pension providers have been urged to find out more about post-retirement spending as new research suggests homeowners’ and renters’ drawdown habits are very different.
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Single pensioners need £225K more for ‘moderate’ retirement
Single pensioners need £225,000 more in their pension pot than couples to achieve a ‘moderate’ standard of living in retirement.
Latest Blog
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James Jones-Tinsley: Aiming for an advice-guidance sweetspot
As Nikhil Rathi is reappointed as CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for another five years, the FCA has set out its strategic direction for 2025/26, with important implications for financial advisers.
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Martin Tilley: FCA must grapple growth v regulation question
In late December, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tasked 10 regulators with removing ‘barriers to growth’ in order to attach the jump leads to the UK economy. On 16 January, the FCA wrote a letter to the Government to outline their plans to support the growth agenda.
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Lisa Webster: Over-taxation of pensions remains an issue
HMRC’s January pension schemes newsletter announced changes to tax codes for pensions, and a few headlines followed proclaiming HMRC had finally fixed the over-taxation issue. It would be fantastic if that was the case, but despite nearly 10 years of getting it wrong, the problem isn’t resolved yet.
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Lisa Webster: Divorce impact on lump sums raises question
The lifetime allowance may have been consigned to the annals of history but the various forms of protection are still relevant in the new world, especially when it comes to the amount of pension commencement lump sum (PCLS) that can be taken.
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Martin Tilley: How education can tackle pension scams
The dark reality of pension scams is that we don’t really know how common they are. Fraud is a crime which tends to have low reporting events and with pension scams, it’s no different. The emotional toll can be as large as the financial, with some people being too embarrassed to report that they have been the victim of a scam.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of people surveyed say they would not pay for financial advice, according to new research.
Women are more likely to miss out on entitlement to free guidance despite having the most to gain, according to a new report.
Nearly nine in 10 (88%) women aged 45-54 surveyed by retirement specialist Just Group did not know they were entitled to free, independent and impartial pension guidance.
The 12% who said they were aware was nearly half the 20% of men aged 45-54 who knew about the service.
The FCA has abandoned plans to ban platform exit fees.
In a regulatory update today the watchdog said the move was no longer necessary as a number of platforms had dropped exit fees after the regulator highlighted the issue.
The FCA criticised exit fees as a barrier to investors moving platforms.
The FCA’s Investment Platforms Market study (2018/19) found that while the platform market “works well overall, there were areas where it could work better.”
One of the areas highlighted was the barrier to moving platforms created by exit fees levied by a number of platforms.
The FCA said in Policy Statement 19/29 it would consult on restricting platform exit fees in Q1 2020.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the FCA then delayed the move to Spring 2021.
It now says: “We have now decided to stop work on this consultation.
“Since expressing our concerns in the 2018 Interim Report, there has been a marked shift in the market away from exit fees, with at least two major platforms announcing that they would no longer be charging exit fees.
“The FCA welcomes the direction of travel by the investment platforms sector in phasing out the use of exit fees.”
The regulator added that while it has dropped the Exit Fees Consultation it will be closely monitoring the situation and has hinted it will shake up the sector if new barriers to moving platform or any other consumer detriment emerges.
The move to drop an exit fee ban has been criticised by some.
Richard Wilson, chief executive of interactive investor, said: “We are saddened to see this news snuck out on the afternoon of Friday 13th. Exit fees are a recipe for rip offs and a genuine barrier to consumers seeking better value for money - they should have been banned.
“The FCA rightly points out that the direction of travel in the industry has been away from exit fees, in large part because interactive investor and Hargreaves Lansdown have done away with them. But there are still platforms out there that have grown far too complacent, relying on customer inertia and hefty penalties."
“There is no reason to turn off the heat - quite the opposite. Scrutiny on exit fees needs to be extended to life companies, asset and wealth managers, life insurers and beyond. We are completely bewildered by the FCA’s announcement and today is a sad day for consumers.”
FSCS chief executive Caroline Rainbird has revealed that the major factors pushing up the FSCS levy have been the surge in claims against Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) operators and a rising trend of pensions-related claims.
The Financial Conduct Authority expects a significant number of smaller regulated firms to fail over the next few months.
The FCA has launched High Court proceedings against a company and two individuals over alleged links to care home investments which saw investors lose more than £30m in a UCIS.