Latest Blogs
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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: 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.
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Lisa Webster: Maximising protected tax-free cash
While 2024 ended with a lot of doom and gloom in the pension world following the big announcement on inheritance tax (IHT), there was some good news that may have slipped under the radar of some advisers.
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Tilley: Is the age 75 trigger date now irrelevant?
Age 75 has been an important milestone in pension rules since A day in 2006. It was the latest age at which a compulsory annuity purchase was required (prior to Pensions Freedoms). It's arguably it’s long been an arbitrary line in the sand, noting that life expectancy has been on the increase for the last 20 years, but this trigger age has remained unchanged.
Popular News
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Workers in the dark about workplace pensions
Two in five, 43%, UK workers don’t know how much they are contributing to their workplace pension.
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TPT launches DC decumulation product
Workplace pension provider TPT Retirement Solutions has launched a DC decumulation product, which it said has been designed to simplify retirement income planning for savers.
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1.5m workers can't afford to save into a pension
More than 1.5m UK workers say they cannot afford to save into a pension.
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Pension transfer times rose during tax year end
Simpler pension transfers took an average of just 11 days to complete in the lead up to the end of the 2024/25 tax year.
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Lisa Webster: To gift or not to gift?
Since the announcement that pensions are to be included in estates for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes the question of whether those with large pension pots should be giving some funds away has become increasingly common.
Nearly 70% of DB transfers went ahead when contingent charging was used compared to less than 28% when non-contingent charging was applied, according to a Freedom of Information request.
Investment firm and wealth manager Rathbone Brothers has acquired James Hay-owned Financial Planner Saunderson House for £150m.
Complaints about pensions dropped 69.3% year on year between April 2020 and March 2021, but complaints about investments increased 2.4% over the same period, according to a new complaints data report.
The scaling back of lockdown restrictions is boosting consumer personal finance confidence with one in seven expecting to increase pension contributions in the next year.
Over a tenth (12%) of UK homeowners over 40 years old would consider releasing equity from their property to supplement their retirement income, according to a new report.
Major workplace pensions provider NOW: Pensions is to commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and an expanded sustainable investment strategy in a major shift towards ESG investments.