UK | Should you convert your defined benefit pension arrangement?
Do I feel lucky? That’s a question anyone contemplating transferring their pension benefits from a defined benefit arrangement to a defined contribution arrangement should be asking themselves. I read...
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UK | At what level should the automatic enrolment threshold be set?
Those earning under £10,000 a year do not have to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme. The Labour party has suggested this £10,000 threshold should be reduced to £5,772. They are...
View ArticleUK | Are you driving blindly towards your retirement?
You talk we listen, no it’s not an advertising slogan! Here at Buck Consultants at Xerox, employers were telling us of their difficulties in engaging with employees on pensions issues. To boost...
View ArticleUK | When you retire will your dream trip be to Blackpool?
The recent Joint Institute Pensions Survey 2014 conducted amongst some 362 members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Pensions Management Institute (PMI) revealed that...
View ArticleUK | Are older workers an asset?
The UK government is, we are told, committed to driving support for the over 50s in the UK labour market. In its latest move the Pensions Minister Steve Webb (who was 49 on 18 July), has appointed Dr...
View ArticleUK | Pensions industry needs time to plan for changes
Wikipedia has imposed a ban on page edits from the US House of Representatives following “persistent disruptive editing”, according to BBC news. The block comes after anonymous changes were made by a...
View ArticleUK | Older workers have much to offer
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, it’s off to work we go – at least it is in Watford! According to the UK Department for Work and Pensions, the town of Watford in Hertfordshire boasts the highest employment rate...
View ArticleUK | Pension industry awaiting rulings on scheme transfers
From the Gilbert & Sullivan opera “Pirates of Penzance” When a felon’s not engaged in his employment (his employment) Or maturing his felonious little plans (little plans) His capacity for innocent...
View ArticleUK | Are Insurers Feathering Their NEST?
The UK Pensions Minister, Steve Webb, has announced the government intends to remove the annual contribution limit and transfer restrictions it placed on the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)....
View ArticleUK | The Health Status of Older People Is Cause for Concern
I saw a headline on the BBC recently saying Norway was the best place for older people. It turned out to be a reference to Help Age International’s Global Age Watch Index 2014, rather than a UKIP...
View ArticleUK | Older Workers, Your Country Needs You
According to a DWP press release issued to mark International Older People’s Day on 1 October, nearly a quarter of a million more people aged 65 and over have opted to stay in work since the default...
View ArticleUK | Is guaranteed guidance enough?
The Chancellor Goes Forth The Government had a cunning plan and the Chancellor with great relish outlined his new proposals on pensions reform at the Budget earlier this year. Part of the cunning plan,...
View ArticleUK | Error in the current Pension Schemes Bill
More haste less speed Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes calculate transfer values at the date of disinvestment. There is good reason for this. A member in a defined contribution pension scheme...
View ArticleUK | Why Cashing in Your Annuity is Wrong
Cashing in your annuity – like a riot in a multi storey car park, wrong on so many levels! In case you have failed to notice its election year. MPs worried about their own, or their colleagues’...
View ArticleUK | Pension Wise – but just how pension wise will the advisers be?
To assist members to understand their options from April 2015 when the new pensions flexibilities are applied to defined contribution arrangements, the government is implementing a free and impartial...
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UK | Pensions pocket picked again!
“I have got to pick a pocket or two, boys”, might be just what The Chancellor, George Osborne, is today telling his coalition government colleagues. For the Government has just announced it is not...
View ArticleUK | It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse group of strangers. The government has estimated that up to 540,000...
View ArticleUK | Drawing a veil over fraud.
Purdah, which comes from a Persian word meaning “curtain” or “veil”, is the period between an election being announced and the final election results. During purdah the government is prevented from...
View ArticleUK | Winning, and losing your pension benefits.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in giving evidence to The Work and Pensions Select Committee, perhaps unwisely said that it can’t “stop fools acting like fools”. The Chair of the Committee...
View ArticleUK | Will the government listen to its new Pensions Minister?
The Conservatives, having won the general election, have apparently decided they have no one within their ranks of MPs with sufficient pensions knowledge to become Pensions Minister. Steve Webb was...
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