In the run-up to pension freedoms people seemed to be speaking about pensions in a different way. There was new excitement over the removal of the need to buy an annuity (even though this had been the case for some time already).
Many years ago (as some of the best stories begin) when I was working for Winterthur Life, I undertook a series of talks around the UK.
I have just finished AJ Bell’s annual tour of the UK where a host of lucky advisers got to hear me talk about the current key pension issues.
AJ Bell, the Sipp and investment provider, has urged the Financial Conduct Authority to make the disclosure regime for pension and investment products clearer.
Major platform provider AJ Bell has appointed a new sales director to work on their SIPP products.
As is to be expected, a lot of the conversations that I have recently had with advisers have centred around defined benefit (DB) transfers.
We are fast approaching at the second anniversary of the pension freedoms and the removal of the requirement to buy an annuity (officially that is – the real compulsion went several years before). In that two years the focus has been on the numbers – what has been cashed, how much tax has been generated, what product options are popular and very little on how the money has been spent.
I always take an interest in the figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) about SIPP claims.
The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a Green Paper to consult on significant proposed changes to workplace Defined Benefit pensions which cover 11m people.
Two of the big things on the pension calendar for 2017 are John Cridland’s review of the state pension age and the review of auto enrolment. I like to think that the two reviews are linked in a linear way.
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