August 2018

UK. Pensions dashboard to be debated in Parliament

“The dashboard really needs to happen if the government wants people to save enough for a decent retirement income. We can’t stop pensions being confusing and a turn off but we can make it easier to get all the information in one place and that would surely help. "The practical difficulties are not to be underestimated and occupational schemes are struggling to improve their own data quality. However, if the risks are to be transferred to individuals then we have...

UK. Pension transfers could cost members £2,600 over expected lifetime

Pension members choosing to transfer out of their employer’s scheme could receive an income that is £2,600 lower over their expected lifetime, according to research by XPS Pensions Group. The report, Member Outcomes Under Freedom and Choice, published today (7 August 2018), looks at data on defined benefits (DB) scheme transfers, collated by XPS Administration over the period since 2016. The research also found: Depending on the choice of retirement vehicle chosen to receive a transfer, an individual could run out of...

UK pension industry faces transparency inquiry

As Australia’s superannuation industry undergoes its own grilling at the Royal Commission, the UK Government has announced the Commons Select Committee will hold an inquiry into pension costs and transparency. The inquiry would examine whether the pensions industry provides sufficient transparency around charges, investment strategy and performance to consumers. It comes off the back of the Committee’s recent inquiry into pension freedom and choice, which found that some scheme members were being “shamelessly bamboozled” into signing up to unsuitable ongoing adviser...

UK. Investing for the 100-year life: How to model income in retirement

Financial planning experts have urged advisers to stay up to date with how they model income in retirement as life expectancy, health and working patterns continue to shift among the older population. In the first of our new roundtables with Vitality as part of our Value Exchange project, we gathered specialists in cashflow planning, behavioural economics and financial education to discuss how advisers can meet the challenges of clients banks that are living healthier, and living healthier for longer. Founder of...

British expat retirees warned over leaving pensions in sterling

The average pension pot for UK expat overseas is around £210,000, but currency fluctuations may cause losses of 20 per cent. A recent analysis of the plunging pound’s effect on British pensions paid in sterling on behalf of UK expats living overseas gives bad news for the estimated 247,000 Brit retirees living abroad. Put bluntly, pensions held in sterling but drawn in foreign currency via ATMs or bank to bank transfers are permanently open to currency exchange fluctuation risks. In...

UK Financial services exports to the EU reach a record high

UK exports of financial services to the EU reached an all-time high of £25.9bn in 2017, according to data released today by the Office for National Statistics. A £3.5bn increase in the surplus on financial services was the largest driver of the UK’s services surplus last year. By destination, Europe was the largest contributor to the improvement in the financial services trade balance, with a £26.5bn surplus accounting for £2.9bn of the headline gain. The record high on financial services exports...

UK. Calls for HMRC to scrap rule penalising parents’ pensions

The taxman is under pressure to ditch a rule that costs busy new parents thousands of pounds in state pension entitlement. Parents who have taken time out of work to raise their baby get just three months during the frantic first weeks of having a newborn to register for child benefits with HMRC, allowing them to continue to build up their state pension though they are not employed. Those who failed to do this have already missed out on as much...