July felt like an incredibly busy month. Aside from the continued juggle of home schooling alongside the day job, consultations have been coming at us thick and fast.

Adviser platform AJ Bell Investcentre is to give financial advisers access to third party Managed Portfolio Services (MPS) from external Discretionary Fund Managers via its platform for the first time.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee has launched an investigation into pension scams as part of its inquiry into pension freedoms.

It’s been a few years now since the words “holiday”, “property” and “SIPPs” were commonly found together.

Almost £10bn was transferred out of defined benefit pensions in the final quarter of 2019, according to official data.

When SIPPs were in their infancy they were largely a niche product reserved for the most affluent, small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Platform and SIPP operator AJ Bell is to open its adviser platform to selected DFM funds from the second half of 2020, it revealed in its six month interim results out this week.

The recent news that the withdrawal charge for Lifetime ISAs (LISA) was being dropped from 25% to 20% was very welcome and a pragmatic move by the Treasury.

It will be no surprise to those of you that know me, or at least read some of my blogs last autumn, that I’m not the biggest fan of default investment pathways, especially when it comes to SIPPs, and most definitely when advisers are involved.

New research suggests that 1 in 10 over-55s (11%) have either accessed their pension early or plan to do so due to the Coronavirus outbreak.