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  • James Jones-Tinsley: Guided Retirement Duty could be game changer

    During May, the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), sponsored by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), concluded that defined contribution (DC) pension savers – including those in SIPPs, as well as in Workplace Pensions - require more guidance when choosing suitable retirement products.

  • Tilley: Is the age 75 trigger date now irrelevant?

    Age 75 has been an important milestone in pension rules since A day in 2006. It was the latest age at which a compulsory annuity purchase was required (prior to Pensions Freedoms). It's arguably it’s long been an arbitrary line in the sand, noting that life expectancy has been on the increase for the last 20 years, but this trigger age has remained unchanged.

  • Lisa Webster: Overcomplicated rules are a threat

    It may be more than a year since the Lifetime Allowance was formally abolished but issues are still emerging from the mess made by rushed legislation.

  • Lisa Webster: To gift or not to gift?

    Since the announcement that pensions are to be included in estates for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes the question of whether those with large pension pots should be giving some funds away has become increasingly common.

Popular News

  • Inheritance tax receipts for April to June were £2.2bn, over £100m higher than the same period last year, according to new HMRC figures published today.

  • Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has confirmed that the third statutory Government review into when and how to raise the State Pension age will begin straightaway.

  • The Society of Pension Professionals said the revival of the government’s landmark Pension Commission is good news as it will consider a wide range of potential solutions rather than focusing solely on automatic enrolment.

  • Nearly one in 10 estates liable for inheritance tax paid more than £500,000 in the latest available year, with the number expected to soar from April 2027 when pensions are set to be included in IHT calculations.

    In the 2021/22 tax year, 2,520 estates paid more than £500,000 in IHT, a 29% increase over three years.

    If the trend seen over three years to the end of 2021/22 continues, more than 3,524 estates will pay £500,000 or more in IHT by end of the current tax year.

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    The figures were obtained through a new FOI by wealth manager Rathbones.

    They showed that of the 27,850 estates liable for IHT in the 2021/2022 tax year, 1,630 paid between £500,000 and £999,999 in IHT, while a further 890 estates paid more than £1m.

    That totals more than 2,520 estates, 9% of all estates in the year that were liable for inheritance tax. That represents a 29% increase from the figure recorded at the end of the 2018/19 tax year, and the number is rising, Rathbones warned.

    Rebecca Williams, divisional lead of Financial Planning at Rathbones, said: “More and more people will be caught out by IHT charges, despite the availability of gifting allowances and the seven-year rule. The deep freeze on both the main nil-rate band and the residence nil-rate band, unchanged since 2009 and 2017 respectively, has led to a creeping form of fiscal drag.

    “As house prices and asset values have steadily risen, more estates are being brought into the IHT net simply because the thresholds haven’t kept pace with inflation.”

    She said the issue will worsen from April 2027, when pension assets are brought into the fold and the change could pull even modest estates into scope for IHT.

    She said that makes it increasingly vital for families to engage in effective Financial Planning. “Without proactive steps, more estates will find themselves facing IHT bills they might not have anticipated.”

    Additional research by Rathbones on the impact of the Government’s plans around IHT found that nearly one in three, 31%, people with pensions say they are put off making further contributions to their pension pots by the changes, which means they lose the tax efficiencies of pension saving.

    The money they are no longer contributing to their pensions is most likely to be put in cash – around two out of five, 39%, questioned said they will deposit the money in savings accounts while 25% plan to invest some of the money in equity ISAs.

    Almost one in seven, 14%, questioned say they have already changed their focus to property investment as a result of the decision.

    Rathbones commissioned Viewsbank to survey 619 people with pensions, cash ISAs, investment ISAs, shares, investment funds and cash savings between March 14th and March 17th,. The sample represented the demographic profile of the UK.

  • The Government is reviving the Pensions Commission to look at ways to tackle the problem of people not saving for their retirement.

  • The restricted remit of the new Pensions Commission will limit its ability to deal with the scale of the problem, according to LCP partner and former Pensions Minister Steve Webb.

Latest News

The FSCS, the government-backed financial safety net scheme, has published a series of case studies to warn consumers about the potential risks of consolidating pensions into one plan.

There was a near 10,000 rise in the number of complaints about SIPPs and non-workplace pensions in the first half of 2023, according to the latest FCA Complaints Data report.

Hargreaves Lansdown has reported an 8,000 rise in client numbers to 1.812m in the latest quarter thanks - in part - to a rise in SIPP customers, according to a trading update issued today.

Advised customers increased 10% year-on-year to 159,256 for platform and SIPP provider AJ Bell for the year ending 30 September.

Retirees are set to receive a 8.5% increase to their State Pension from April next year as CPI inflation held steady at 6.7% for the year ending September.

After intense pressure from several quarters, wealth manager St James's Place said today that it would scrap most exit charges in a major overhaul due to be implemented in the second half of 2025.

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