Comment and Blogs
Like many, I was expecting a short announcement during the Autumn Statement followed thereafter by the publication of pages of detail explaining the new pension death tax rules. I certainly wasn't expecting to read about it on my BBC News app on the Sunday night before the Conservative Party conference.
It has been a tough couple of weeks for the SIPP industry.
The best part of two years is a long time to wait for the result of a consultation, and you would expect to see some progress after that sort of delay.
As is often the case, come springtime I was asked whether there would be any changes in the upcoming 2014 budget. I thought about it, taking into consideration where we were with pension reform and with a General Election on the horizon, and I categorically said "No – too near to the Election." The rest is history!
In this brave new world of pension freedoms, people will have far more choice regarding what they want to do with their pension funds.
In May 2014, Steve Webb, addressing the Treasury Select Committee, indicated that the Guidance Guarantee "would be fairly basic ... fairly rudimentary ... fairly general ... but enough to get people to the starting gate".