Latest Blogs
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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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Lisa Webster: Maximising protected tax-free cash
While 2024 ended with a lot of doom and gloom in the pension world following the big announcement on inheritance tax (IHT), there was some good news that may have slipped under the radar of some advisers.
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James Jones-Tinsley: Guided Retirement Duty could be game changer
During May, the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), sponsored by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), concluded that defined contribution (DC) pension savers – including those in SIPPs, as well as in Workplace Pensions - require more guidance when choosing suitable retirement products.
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Tilley: Is the age 75 trigger date now irrelevant?
Age 75 has been an important milestone in pension rules since A day in 2006. It was the latest age at which a compulsory annuity purchase was required (prior to Pensions Freedoms). It's arguably it’s long been an arbitrary line in the sand, noting that life expectancy has been on the increase for the last 20 years, but this trigger age has remained unchanged.
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Lisa Webster: Overcomplicated rules are a threat
It may be more than a year since the Lifetime Allowance was formally abolished but issues are still emerging from the mess made by rushed legislation.
Popular News
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UK pension scheme surpluses climb £26bn in 12 months
The aggregate surplus of UK pension schemes against long-term funding targets remained extremely positive at £189bn at the end of June, up £26bn compared to the end of June 2024.
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SIPP savers over-confident about retirement
SIPP savers are facing a ‘retirement mirage’ as their confidence about achieving a comfortable retirement outpaces their understanding of how they will achieve it.
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Aggregate DB surplus rises to £231bn, says PPF
The aggregate surplus of DB pension schemes climbed to £230.5bn at the end of June, according to the latest Pension Protection Fund (PPF) 7800 Index.
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BoE's Bailey opposes pension asset allocation mandate
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has registered his opposition to Government plans to set asset allocation targets for pensions under its new Pension Schemes Bill.
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Less than half of mid-retirees confident savings will last
Less than half, 48%, of mid-retirees aged 65-75 who do not pay for financial advice are confident they are on track to make their pension savings last for life.
Investment platform Interactive Investor has scrapped or paused a number of SIPP fees for clients of its new acquistion The Share Centre.
Last year only two pension fraud cases a month were passed to the police to investigate despite nearly 400 reports to Action Fraud.
One in four workers in the UK have changed their pension plans due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to new research released for Pensions Awareness Day this week.
Richard Stone, chief executive of The Share Centre, will leave the business on 18 September after 14 years at the firm to “pursue other interests and opportunities.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a fine to CPS Advisory Ltd for making more than 100,000 unauthorised direct marketing calls to people about their pensions.
CPS Advisory, the parent company of Swansea-based The Advisory Network, was fined £130,000 for the breach of new laws on pensions cold calling.
Under the new cold calling laws, companies can only make calls to people about their pensions if they are authorised by the FCA and the recipient has an existing relationship with the caller.
The change to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR) which covers marketing calls, phone and texts in January 2019, was introduced to prevent people falling victim to scams, most of which are carried out through nuisance calls, and potentially losing their pensions.
Under PECR, businesses can face a fine of up to £500,000 from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
During its investigation, the ICO found that between 11 January 2019 and 30 April 2019, the company had made 106,987 calls to people without lawful authority.
The ICO found that the company was not a trustee or manager of a pensions scheme, was not authorised by the FCA and the evidence that it provided did not satisfy the ICO that valid consent had been obtained.
The Information Commissioner decided that this represented “a significant intrusion into the privacy of the recipients of such calls.”
Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, said: “Unwanted pension calls can cause real distress and even significant financial hardship to often vulnerable people, who can end up losing their hard-earned pension pot to scammers.
“This company clearly flouted the law when they should have known better. Businesses making direct marketing calls are responsible for understanding their responsibilities under the legislation, ignorance is no excuse.”
A spokesman for The Pensions Regulator said: “This £130,000 fine should be a strong deterrent to any firm thinking of flouting the law on pension cold calls."
More than 32,000 pension savers have received £135m in compensation from providers who failed to inform them about enhanced annuity options, the FCA has revealed in its Annual Report and Accounts.