Comment and Blogs
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.
Having just had the last Spring Budget, delivered by a very humorous Chancellor Philip Hammond, it is back to the day job, with thankfully few further changes to our ever complex pensions regime.
As I am getting older, I don’t know if my tolerance levels are lower than they once were but at the moment, every time I read a story about the number of SIPP complaints being received by The Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Pensions Ombudsman it makes my blood boil.
Those of a certain vintage will remember the animated children’s TV programme, “Mr Benn”, where each episode featured the line, “and then – as if by magic – the shopkeeper appeared”.
I always take an interest in the figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) about SIPP claims.
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.