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I have recently returned from nearly two months away from anything to do with pensions (well, aside from deciding I need a bigger fund to spend more time in all the places we visited, once we don’t have the kids in tow!).

Last year, a whirlwind of change hit the pensions industry as schemes and advisers raced to prepare for the removal of the lifetime allowance, while HMRC staff scratched their heads over exactly how it could be done before the end of tax year deadline, writes Beth Joslyn, of AJ Bell (standing in for Lisa Webster who is on holiday).

Following the changes introduced in the 2023 Budget, there has been some focus on how the death benefit rules might change.

As a much-changed Parliament gets up and running, we pension techies eagerly await the long overdue regulations to correct the drafting errors in this year’s Finance Act. 

The recent news that Labour has ditched plans to re-instate the lifetime allowance is certainly welcome.

The Ofsted grading system has come under scrutiny recently, but despite a report from the cross-party education select committee calling for an end to the simplified grades, the government have confirmed they are here to stay.

One of the many facets of a pension trustee's role is to use their discretion to decide who should benefit from a deceased member’s pension fund. 

The new tax year will bring in sweeping changes to the pension world. Due to the rushed nature of the upheaval surrounding the abolition of the lifetime allowance, we still have some areas of uncertainty as the deadline rapidly draws near.

I will be celebrating 10 years at AJ Bell in a couple of months. When I joined, Pension Freedoms had just been announced and it was all hands on deck to prepare for the huge changes on the way.

The latest Finance Bill released in November gave us the first look at the transitional rules for those that have taken some pension benefits under the current regime but also have untouched funds that will be accessed after 6 April.