Popular News
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Govt to launch small pension pot consolidator
The Government is to create a small pensions pot consolidator as part of its Pension Schemes Bill.
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InvestAcc revenue up 16.3% after SIPP acquisitions
SIPP and SSAS provider InvestAcc said revenues increased 16.3% to £10.5m in the six months to the end of December 2024, up from £9m in the same period in 2023.
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AJ Bell reports advised customer numbers up 7%
Total advised customers for investment and SIPP platform AJ Bell rose 7% year-on-year to 177,000 in the first quarter.
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Pension transfer value falls to record low
Defined benefit pension value has fallen to its lowest rate since the XPS Group’s Transfer Watch was established in 2018.
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TPR expects DB schemes to switch to ‘endgame planning’
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) said it expects DB schemes to switch their focus to ‘endgame planning’ from deficit recovery.
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Annuity misconceptions remain despite rise in sales
Almost half, 48%, of over-50s are unfamiliar with what lifetime annuities are and how they compare to other annuity products.
Latest Blog
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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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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: 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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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.
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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.
Major new research has revealed that men are more likely than women (43% versus 37%) to manage their own pensions, such as via a self-invested personal pension scheme (SIPP).
Fund manager Marlborough has launched an investment platform for financial advisers and their clients with an annual charge of 0.2%.
The number of complaints about life and pension and investment companies fell by 8% during 2022, according to the latest data from the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Plans to bring forward a rise in the state pension age which were expected to be announced in May have been put on hold, according to newspaper reports
The Pensions Scams Industry Group (PSIG), the voluntary body set up to support trustees, providers and administrators in combating pension scams, has launched an ‘Interim Practitioner Guide’ which details the key due diligence steps to undertake when assessing a pension transfer.
XPS Pension Group’s Transfer Value Index fell by 4% in February to £168,000, the lowest month-end value since the Index was first published in June 2016.