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.
The review was launched after the FOS was heavily criticised following an undercover investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, in March, which appeared to show that complaints were being handled by insufficiently trained officials.
The documentary suggested that some officials had to use internet search engines to find out about the products they were considering.
Mr Lloyd, who is vice chair of Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and is UK chairman of complaints handler Resolver, will lead the independent probe and his remit has also been revealed.
He is to be granted “full access and the resources necessary” to carry out a review and can go where the investigation takes him, with unrestricted access to FOS staff and all documents.
The review will be completed by the end of June.
A document published by FOS, in relation to the review’s parameters, read: “The review will assess the evidence presented by Dispatches in respect of each of the issues raised in the programme, to consider whether there are any matters of substance which should be addressed, although it will not be restricted to the issues raised in the programme.
“If the review finds matters for concern, it will seek to identify possible root causes for them (such as management action or inaction, cultural factors, staff objectives and performance management, organisational structure or any other underlying factor) and how they might be addressed.
“The review will also consider staff morale and the factors which contribute to it.”
It was also revealed that the investigation will look into the extent to which the current governance and arrangements for providing assurance about the work of FOS to its board, including whistleblowing procedures, “are applied effectively and consistently.”
As head of the review, Mr Lloyd will be able to make recommendations for strengthening governance and assurance arrangements in his final report.