Latest - PENSIONS

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  Thousands have breached LTA protections, especially since auto-enrolment

  22 April 2019

  Thousands of pension savers have breached one of the various forms of lifetime allowance protections introduced since ‘A-Day’ in 2006, with a massive spike in numbers since auto-enrolment. A Freedom of Information request from pensions specialist AJ Bell found over 12,000 investors have notified HMRC of losing their protection, potentially landing themselves with a hefty tax...

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  New Selectapension tool to help expedite data collation for client reviews

  18 April 2019

  Selectapension is to launch a new “Rapid Reviewer” tool, designed to make client reviews of pensions and investments more efficient and cost effective. Annual client reviews, a mandatory requirement for MiFID II regulated products provides an opportunity for advisers to reassess previous recommendations against clients’ current circumstances and review the performance of investments. Selectapension...

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  New software from O&M tackles compliant DB transfer reporting

  16 April 2019

  O&M Systems has launched a new TVC tool to support advice firms in the defined benefit transfer market. The firm said it has identified three key reports as part of this launch: 1. A client facing report containing the mandatory TVC, which runs to just 8 pages. 2. An adviser/file report, containing all the...

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  The problem that is Guaranteed Minimum Pensions

  15 April 2019

  Equalisation of benefits for Guaranteed Minimum Pensions is causing problems for pension schemes in terms of benefits and transfer values and requires clarification from DWP, says Fiona Tait, technical director, Intelligent Pensions Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) has been in the ‘too difficult’ box for so long that for many of those reading this article...

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  Consumers no regrets about plundering pension savings

  11 April 2019

  The majority of consumers who have flexibly accessed their pension savings since the introduction of the pension freedoms four years ago have no regrets about doing so, despite re-investing the money into low or no interest savings accounts, new research has shown. According to Canada Life, 90% of people said they had no regrets,...

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  Post baby boomer savers need to sacrifice more take-home pay for retirement

  10 April 2019

  The ‘good times’ of rapidly rising retirement incomes may be coming to an end. It follows the latest retirement income figures from the Department for Work and Pensions which showed that average weekly income for all pensioners was £304 in 2017/18, almost twice the £161 recorded in 1994/95, but down from £317 in 2016/17....

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  HMRC and SSAS scrutiny

  9 April 2019

  Gareth James, head of technical at AJ Bell looks at where typical use of SSAS is coming under HMRC scrutiny and offers some dos and don’ts when advising clients SSASs have attracted regulatory and press attention for all the wrong reasons in the last few years. The primary cause of concern has been the...

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  Full-time mothers should be auto-enrolled, says LEBC

  8 April 2019

  LEBC Group has called for all full-time mothers to be auto enrolled into their own pension plan, helping to reduce the gender pension gap and enabling women to claim their share of pension tax relief. As workers aged between 22 and 66, earning more than £10,000 a year, prepare to see their auto enrolment...

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