Latest Columns
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Tilley: Rebooting the FOS makes sense
I’ve written before about the lack of coherence in the UK’s pension complaints landscape and it remains a source of real frustration for those of us working in the sector.
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Lisa Webster: Pension age uncertainty lingers on
We’ve known for many years that normal minimum pension age, NMPA it's known, is going up.
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Tilley: Are we asking too much of pension savers?
Working in UK pensions, I’ve always accepted that the system evolves. Fiscal pressures change, demographics shift, and governments recalibrate policy objectives. But even allowing for that, the pace and volume of legislative change in the pensions space over the last few years feels unprecedented, and in my view increasingly problematic.
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Lisa Webster: Beware IHT and pensions double taxation
One of the most disliked aspects of bringing pensions into the estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes from 6 April 2027 is the double taxation that will occur when the member dies on or after their 75th birthday.
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Lisa Webster: Should tax-free cash always be taken?
Since the Lifetime Allowance was abolished and replaced with the Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) and lump sum and death benefit allowance (LSDBA), we have seen an increase in SIPP members who want to take drawdown only – foregoing the right to take the associated pension commencement lump sum (PCLS).
Popular News
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Government to increase SSAS scam protections
The Government has issued draft regulations to address concerns about scam risks for members of small self-administered schemes (SSAS).
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Transact adds new trust to help with IHT pension tax
Transact has unveiled the new Flexible Reversionary Trust (FRT) which it says will help advisers prepare for the April 2027 IHT changes when unused pension funds will be subject to IHT.
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James Jones-Tinsley: The pension challenges ahead
On 19 May, the Pensions Commission published its Interim Report on the state of retirement saving in the UK.
SIPP and cross-border financial services firm STM has expressed “disappointment” at the Court of Appeal’s decision to allow a challenge to the recent ‘Adams’ case judgment.
Investment platform Interactive Investor has scrapped or paused a number of SIPP fees for clients of its new acquistion The Share Centre.
Last year only two pension fraud cases a month were passed to the police to investigate despite nearly 400 reports to Action Fraud.
One in four workers in the UK have changed their pension plans due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to new research released for Pensions Awareness Day this week.
Richard Stone, chief executive of The Share Centre, will leave the business on 18 September after 14 years at the firm to “pursue other interests and opportunities.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a fine to CPS Advisory Ltd for making more than 100,000 unauthorised direct marketing calls to people about their pensions.
CPS Advisory, the parent company of Swansea-based The Advisory Network, was fined £130,000 for the breach of new laws on pensions cold calling.
Under the new cold calling laws, companies can only make calls to people about their pensions if they are authorised by the FCA and the recipient has an existing relationship with the caller.
The change to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR) which covers marketing calls, phone and texts in January 2019, was introduced to prevent people falling victim to scams, most of which are carried out through nuisance calls, and potentially losing their pensions.
Under PECR, businesses can face a fine of up to £500,000 from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
During its investigation, the ICO found that between 11 January 2019 and 30 April 2019, the company had made 106,987 calls to people without lawful authority.
The ICO found that the company was not a trustee or manager of a pensions scheme, was not authorised by the FCA and the evidence that it provided did not satisfy the ICO that valid consent had been obtained.
The Information Commissioner decided that this represented “a significant intrusion into the privacy of the recipients of such calls.”
Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, said: “Unwanted pension calls can cause real distress and even significant financial hardship to often vulnerable people, who can end up losing their hard-earned pension pot to scammers.
“This company clearly flouted the law when they should have known better. Businesses making direct marketing calls are responsible for understanding their responsibilities under the legislation, ignorance is no excuse.”
A spokesman for The Pensions Regulator said: “This £130,000 fine should be a strong deterrent to any firm thinking of flouting the law on pension cold calls."