Popular News
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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.
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DC savers warned of 20% hit from Trump’s tariffs
Donald Trump’s tariffs could hit UK pensions, with DC savers warned they may experience a 20% cut in their retirement income.
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Number of appointed reps continues to fall
The number of appointed representatives continued to fall in 2024/25, according to the latest data from the Financial Conduct Authority.
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.
A nudge from a pension provider drove three times as many savers to seek guidance during research by the Money and Pensions Service.
The Coronavirus pandemic has created the 'perfect storm' for those in income drawdown and many may never fully recover from the impact, according to a new report.
After an unsteady period, defined benefit (DB) pension transfer values increased to a record high during June and the number of members taking a transfer value rebounded strongly too.
Mattioli Woods has made three new board appointments including replacing their chief financial officer. The wealth manager and employee benefits business said that all directors and staff will not be paid their bonuses for the year.
The FCA plans to launch an enhanced Financial Services Register later this month to replace the existing register.
The changeover will happen on Monday 27 July with the previous register withdrawn on Friday 24 July.
Later in the year the regulator will add a directory of certified and assessed persons to reflect the introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR)
The revamped Register will have a new look and include improvements in response to user feedback.
According to the FCA, the changes will make it easier to find and understand information on the Register.
Firms will be expected to update any links they have to pages on the current Financial Services Register, other than those to the homepage, once the enhanced Register launches.
All current links will be redirected to the enhanced Register’s homepage. The existing Financial Services Register will cease to be available from 6pm on Friday 24 July so that work can take place over the weekend to make the enhanced Register ready for the start of business on Monday 27 July, says the FCA.
The SM&CR regime involves the FCA publishing and maintaining a directory of “certified and assessed” persons on the Financial Services Register. This is to help consumers and professionals check details of key individuals working in financial services.
The directory persons information was planned for March this year but put back partly due to the Coronavirus outbreak and also because the FCA also experienced “operational challenges” when processing some bulk data file submissions from dual-regulated firms at peak periods.
Banks, building societies, credit unions and insurance companies can continue to update the information on their past and present certified employees for inclusion in the directory when it launches later this year.
The FCA recently announced it had proposed extending the previous deadline of 9 December 2020 for solo-regulated firms to submit information about Directory Persons to the Register to 31 March 2021.
The FCA will however allow still publish details of certified employees of solo firms starting from 9 December 2020 on the Register where firms can supply this information before March.
The FCA has pushed back publication of its Annual Report and Accounts - due this month - for at least two months due to the Coronavirus pandemic.