Displaying items by tag: AJ Bell

Major platform provider AJ Bell has appointed a new sales director to work on their SIPP products.

As is to be expected, a lot of the conversations that I have recently had with advisers have centred around defined benefit (DB) transfers.

We are fast approaching at the second anniversary of the pension freedoms and the removal of the requirement to buy an annuity (officially that is – the real compulsion went several years before). In that two years the focus has been on the numbers – what has been cashed, how much tax has been generated, what product options are popular and very little on how the money has been spent.

I always take an interest in the figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) about SIPP claims.

The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a Green Paper to consult on significant proposed changes to workplace Defined Benefit pensions which cover 11m people.

Two of the big things on the pension calendar for 2017 are John Cridland’s review of the state pension age and the review of auto enrolment. I like to think that the two reviews are linked in a linear way.

The one pension topic guaranteed to create a healthy discussion is that of defined benefit (DB) transfers.

‘Another one bites the dust!’ A tenuous way to start an article I know, but it is in response to the news that another insurance company has decided not to continue in the annuity market (LV=).

If you are quiet you will hear the whoosh of kites being flown! It is that time of the year – with the Autumn Statement on the horizon, everyone wants their ideas to be considered. Some of those kites are a new age-related bonus system, a call for a ‘pensions bonfire’ (to get rid of complexity), and various suggestions of periods of no change and independent pension commissions.

One of the big themes recently in all areas of business has been financial literacy and education, particularly in terms of bringing some degree of financial education to the school syllabus.