A bankrupt could now be forced to draw their pension and hand it to their creditors, following a High Court judgment of 4 April.
Damon Watt, principal of EMW, says: "Until now a bankrupt’s undrawn pension has generally been considered out of reach of bankruptcy creditors and not...
Following pressure from the industry, HMRC has refined its stance on death in service lump sum benefits for those applying for Fixed Protection.
Towers Watson points that the more common forms of death benefit provision, even if they are subject to insurability clauses, will continue to be...
Fixed Protection enables an individual to retain a £1.8m lifetime allowance (LTA) with effect from 6 April 2012, when the standard LTA will reduce to £1.5m. In order to benefit from Fixed Protection the individual must cease all active accrual of retirement pension and/or money...
For the first time since 2001/2, Britons saved more into stocks and shares ISAs than personal pensions last tax year.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that £14.28bn was saved into personal pensions (excluding stakeholder) in the 2010/11 tax year compared to £15.837bn...
Money problems affect the performance of one in ten private sector employees. This figure rises to one in five for those earning £20,000–30,000 according to Towers Watson research.
The future of workplace savings shows that over 86% of employees now have less trust in their...
People with large pensions must act before April 2012 to avoid tax charges.
Individuals with substantial pensions risk suffering avoidable tax charges if they do not take action before April 2012, warns JLT Wealth Management. Anyone who wants to can apply to retain the current £1.8m...
More than 18,000 pension investors are at risk of loss of protection from auto-enrolment contributions.
Freedom of Information figures, obtained by platform provider A J Bell, reveal that 18,574 individuals are at risk of losing protection of their pension benefits when new auto-enrolment rules...
More than 18,000 pension investors are at risk of loss of protection from auto-enrolment contributions.
Freedom of Information figures obtained by platform provider A J Bell reveal that 18,574 individuals are at risk of losing protection of their pension benefits when new auto-enrolment rules...
Punter Southall has published the latest in its series of High Earners Survival Guides. In this latest note, it covers recent developments including:
HMRC and the DWP have published a number of draft regulations relating to the annual and lifetime allowances
changes have been made to the...
More than half (51%) of British adults don’t have a Will drawn up, according to research by Standard Life.
These figures become even more worrying when broken down by age. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of 35 to 44 year olds don’t have a Will in place, two-fifths (38%) of 45 to 54 year...
Many employers will need to rethink their response to the pensions tax arising through the annual allowance, according to PwC. They do not have long as this new regime comes into force this April.
The annual allowance charge will typically affect long serving members of final salary pension...
New rules announced today - http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/disguised_remuneration.pdf - say that employer payments into employer financed retirement benefit schemes (EFRBS) and similar vehicles such as Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) will be subject to income tax and national insurance as...
The Government has confirmed that the lifetime allowance will be reduced to £1.5m from 6 April 2012.
However people with savings above £1.5m, or those with funds under £1.5m who believe the value of their pension pot will breach this level due to future investment growth, will...
Leaving pension administrators scarcely six months to implement the new tax changes, the government has finally announced its revised pension tax proposals.
The annual allowance is reduced from £255,000 to £50,000 (which will not be indexed to reflect inflation until 2016 at the...
Sally Bridgeland, CEO of the BP Pension Fund, sets out the unintended consequence of the government’s tax impact on higher earners
I am passionate about occupational pension schemes. This is hardly a surprise: they have been my working life, both as an actuary working in pensions and investment and now as a trustee. I have worked with defined contribution arrangements (DC) and I know that many employees find the sense of...
Alternative forms of workplace savings designed for high earners could filter down to the rest of the workforce suggests Phil Percival, Towers Watson
Over the last couple of years we have witnessed a growing interest from employers in offering alternative forms of workplace savings. In research we published in 2009 we noted that over 63% of employers expected to offer access to a wider range of savings opportunities over the next 15 years. Not...
