Popular News
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Hundreds face huge tax bill after cashing in pension
Almost 300 people fully encashed a pension of more than £250,000 after tax-free cash between October 2023 and March 2024, paying a minimum £98,700 each in tax in the process, according to new analysis of FCA figures by Standard Life.
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Exclusive - SIPP and SSAS Survey reveals confidence
The latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine, our exclusive sister publication for Financial Planners, Paraplanners, Wealth Managers and IFAs, has been published and is ready to view.
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AMPS hears from HMRC at spring conference
The SIPP and SSAS trade body Association of Member-Directed Pension Schemes (AMPS) said it has made progress with liaison with regulators and demonstrated that by having representatives from HMRC at its annual spring conference.
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Crisis-hit CII and PFS hold joint board meeting
The boards of the 120,000 member Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and its subsidiary the Personal Finance Society (PFS) have held a joint meeting this week following the latest in a wave of resignations to hit the PFS.
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AJ Bell platform customers rise to nearly 600,000
Platform and SIPP provider AJ Bell increased its platform customer numbers by 9% to 593,000 over the past six months, the business reported today in interim results.
Latest Blog
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James Jones-Tinsley: Aiming for an advice-guidance sweetspot
As Nikhil Rathi is reappointed as CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for another five years, the FCA has set out its strategic direction for 2025/26, with important implications for financial advisers.
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Lisa Webster: Over-taxation of pensions remains an issue
HMRC’s January pension schemes newsletter announced changes to tax codes for pensions, and a few headlines followed proclaiming HMRC had finally fixed the over-taxation issue. It would be fantastic if that was the case, but despite nearly 10 years of getting it wrong, the problem isn’t resolved yet.
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Lisa Webster: Divorce impact on lump sums raises question
The lifetime allowance may have been consigned to the annals of history but the various forms of protection are still relevant in the new world, especially when it comes to the amount of pension commencement lump sum (PCLS) that can be taken.
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Martin Tilley: How education can tackle pension scams
The dark reality of pension scams is that we don’t really know how common they are. Fraud is a crime which tends to have low reporting events and with pension scams, it’s no different. The emotional toll can be as large as the financial, with some people being too embarrassed to report that they have been the victim of a scam.
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Lisa Webster: Maximising protected tax-free cash
While 2024 ended with a lot of doom and gloom in the pension world following the big announcement on inheritance tax (IHT), there was some good news that may have slipped under the radar of some advisers.
Smaller Sipp firms will be best placed to meet the challenges ahead in the sector over the coming year, the managing director of Liberty Sipp believes.
New guides explaining the sweeping reforms to pensions in "plain English" have been created for advisers and retirees.
The sweeping reforms to pensions introduced in the Budget have increased the need for regulators to protect consumers, the chairman of the FCA has said.
Advisers have reported a significant jump in clients seeking advice since the sweeping reforms to pensions were announced in March.
The Sipp market will ultimately split into two, one of the leading sipp providers has predicted, while another believes platform Sipps will take the majority of business in future.
Young men are wising up to the need to get a pension sorted early in their working lives but women are lagging a long way behind, according to researchers.