Cash now or pension later? We cannot have it both ways warns Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
We all make foolish decisions. We marry people who are beautiful rather than good. We buy lottery tickets. We indulge in extravagant and expensive cars. And most of us, given the choice, prefer cash to pension.
Many of the foolish decisions are driven by common misconceptions. One such...
The Regulator has made good progress in protecting members, but needs to focus more on DC schemes reports Ceri Jones, financial journalist
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is being studied by the National Audit Office (NAO) regarding its effectiveness in protecting defined contribution (DC) pension scheme members.
The report, to be published in the spring, is a follow up to the NAO’s 2007 initial study of TPR’s regulatory...
Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard, on the unintended consequences of rock bottom rates
After the Bank of England had completed its first £200bn round of quantitative easing (QE) – buying gilts to lower interest rates, raise asset prices and stimulate investment in the economy – there were many who said the policy had failed to make things better. However, a...
As the Chancellor saves £60bn by raising the retirement age earlier, pension providers are lagging behind, says Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard
The most telling figure in the Autumn Statement delivered by Chancellor George Osborne in November was that extending the virtual wage freeze on public sector workers is projected to save about £1bn. But government will save £60bn by bringing forward by eight years to 2026 the trigger...
Will 2012 see an Olympic leap forward in pensions provision? Editor, Stephanie Hawthorne asks the great and the good for their predictions
Threats and opportunities
John Ball, head of DB pensions consulting at Towers Watson
Between July and November 2011, there were five occasions when FTSE 100 companies’ combined pension deficits changed by £20bn or more in less than a fortnight. Few defined benefit schemes will ...
Our legislators have been overindulging in regulation again says
Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
The whole point of a winter festival is to overdo it. Certainly in the northern climes, the grey skies and short days make it almost imperative to eat too much and drink too much. It is too cold and wet to work on the farm and we all need something to keep us going until the spring. But we all know...
Could free TV licences and free bus passes be axed for millionaires? Ceri Jones, financial journalists reports
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg believes that means testing benefits such as free bus passes and TV licences, currently given to pensioners solely on the basis of their age, could be a politically palatable saving.
The Liberal Democrat leader told the BBC: “We should be asking millionaire...
The divisions in pensions between public and private and rich and poor are unsustainable warns Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
Apartheid used to be an awful political system that was used to make life difficult for one part of the human community for the benefit of another. In recent years, the term has become somewhat debased; Israel, for example, is sometimes accused of apartheid against its Arab population, although...
There are rumours of possible delay or even exemption from auto-enrolment for smaller businesses reports Ceri Jones, financial journalist
The political consensus on auto-enrolment could be threatened by proposals from Adrian Beecroft, the venture capitalist charged by David Cameron to lead a review of business regulation, who has argued for concessions for small businesses.
Pensions Minister Steve Webb is trying to hold the...
Keeping investment management in house seems to have contributed to the success of the best performing large funds explains Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard
It is well understood that several of the most challenged pension schemes are those of what we used to call the nationalised industries – the giant utilities privatised in the 1980s by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher – and some like the Post Office scheme which never quite...
Why does it always have to be either DB or DC when it comes to choosing a pension scheme? wonders Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
Sometimes things are right or wrong; black or white; yes or no.
Accountants and computer geeks adopt a mantra that holds that what cannot be measured cannot be managed. Computer geeks know that modern computers use ones and zeros to manage computers and even the Mona Lisa can be digitally...
European Commission plans pose a half trillion pound threat to DB sponsors reports Ceri Jones, financial journalist
Final salary schemes face an increase of almost £500bn in their liabilities as the European Commission plans to introduce solvency requirements similar to those required for insurance companies. The decision takes effect from 2014 and its consequences will be so huge they could destabilise...
Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard, raises the battered morale of the pensions industry
I once asked Derek Higgs, author of the eponymous report on Corporate Governance, what he had learned from the exercise. His rather depressing answer was that he had discovered, virtually without exception, that his most virulent critics had almost never read the original document. They had...
Nest announces the members of its two new advisory panels reports Ceri Journalist, financial journalist
Nest has put in place employer and member panels with considerable and diverse expertise as the massive scale of the education task ahead begins to get under way.
More than half the UK workforce is “totally unaware” of next year’s auto-enrolment reforms, according to research...
The high handed attitude of some regulators is not fostering a good relationship with those they need to regulate warns Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
From the 16th floor of our offices, dominating a rather cheap section of the City, we can gaze for miles across North London on a clear day. For several days in August, we could also nearly smell the acrid smoke rising from the ashes of the Sony factory after the recent inner city riots.
This...
The amount of speculative money flowing in and out of the markets has the power to distort prices explains Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard
Twenty years ago it was only in the foreign exchange market that the underlying business activity was dwarfed by speculation – meaning that the foreign currency needed for the buying and selling of imports and exports was well under 10% of the global daily volume.
Today similar conditions...
Employers look likely to be submerged beneath the flood of guidance on auto-enrolment says
Robin Ellison, Pinsent Masons
Adair Turner was a humble mister in 2005 when he drafted the solution to Britain’s pension problem; a few days after it was published he was emphatically ennobled, perhaps as a modest thank you from a grateful government.
There is now just about a year before what he recommended begins to...
The government’s fight with the public sector unions puts the reform timetable at risk reports Ceri Jones, financial journalist
The government’s impasse with the unions over changes to public sector pensions has reached epic proportions, creating speculation that the reform timetable is unachievable.
Pension fund managers and local government leaders have become increasingly sceptical that effective pension...
Too few members could have a big impact both on local authority schemes and on Nest, warns
Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard
The local authority pension schemes, most of which are funded in the same way as private sector schemes, have been blunt in their warnings about the effect of sharply increased contributions on the willingness of members to stay enrolled. The government’s attempts to ease the financial...
The public sector has failed to grasp Lord Hutton’s pension proposals explains Ceri Jones, financial journalist
Hymans Robertson researched public sector workers in May and discovered that three quarters do not understand how Lord Hutton’s recommendations for public sector pensions will affect them. For example, 10% think that they will lose what they have earned in their pension so far, although in...
