Latest Blogs
Popular News
-
Hargreaves Lansdown hits landmark 2m clients
Investment platform and SIPP provider Hargreaves Lansdown has notched up its milestone 2 millionth client and has also seen record assets under management, according to its 2025 Annual Report.
-
Failed SIPP firm clients updated ahead of legal judgment
Clients of failed SIPP provider Hartley Pensions Limited - who have had funds ring-fenced - have been given an update from joint administrators UHY Hacker Young ahead of a legal judgment expected in late October.
-
JPMorgan to replace Nutmeg with new investment platform
JPMorgan is to launch a retail wealth management and investment business with its own DIY investment platform next month.
-
5 year gap between dream retirement age and expectation
While people dream about retiring at 62 they do not expect to be able to retire until they hit 67, according to new research.
-
Sales of escalating annuities surge
Sales of escalating Guaranteed Income for Life annuities that have some inflation protection, accounted for a fifth of all sales in 2024/25 and have increased by 17% year-on-year.
Comment and Blogs
When George Osborne dropped his Pension Freedom bombshell in his now infamous 2014 budget I was on maternity leave.
Read more: Lisa Webster: Time to sort out Pension Freedom tax mess
As the saying goes, nothing is certain except death and taxes. When you put the two together you get inheritance tax (IHT) and in my experience of the pension world the subject of IHT is also certain to come up on a regular basis – I’ve had two queries on the subject in the last two days.
Over the last few months, we’ve seen several announcements of big changes to income tax.
Read more: Lisa Webster: Back to basics with pension tax relief
As the England cricket team play their last home test series of the summer, I am reminded of a term popularised by the former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott.
Read more: Martin Tilley: Pensions entering a 'corridor of uncertainty'
Back in its Financial Advice Market Review of 2016, the FCA recommended the Treasury should challenge the industry to make a Pensions Dashboard available to consumers by 2019. Even then the concept of a dashboard wasn’t new – the recommendation was made due to the limited progress that had been made to date.
Read more: Lisa Webster: Dashboards coming to town...(eventually)
As we near the end of the year and look forward to 2025, it’s difficult not to reflect on the year to date. 2024 presented new challenges for the pension industry, most notably in respect of the implementation of the lifetime allowance abolishment and more recently, the announcement that from 2027, ‘unused’ pension benefits will be subject to inheritance tax.
Read more: Martin Tilley: How the Budget has changed Pensions