November 2017

03Nov

British Insurer Legal & General to Launch Japan Operation-CEO

British’s third-largest insurer, Legal & General (LGEN.L), is launching an operation in Japan to offer company pension scheme insurance and investment management, Chief Executive Nigel Wilson said on Thursday. The move by L&G comes as European peers such as Allianz (ALVG.DE) and Aviva (AV.L) have scaled back from other Asian markets such as Taiwan. The $21 billion (16.09 billion pounds) company, which manages 1 trillion pounds in assets in its fund arm, has sold a number of its European businesses in...

November 3, 2017
News, Slider,
Read more...
02Nov

UK. Cost of living pressures affect people on welfare more than anyone

The release of the latest cost of living indexes shows that for all types of households the cost of living continues to grow well below long-term averages. But in September the impact of electricity price rises most affected aged pensioner and other government beneficiary households. For these households, who have mostly missed out on the benefits of falling interest rates, it means that they remain the most affected by cost of living pressures. Unlike the consumer price index, which provides...

November 2, 2017
News, OP Ed, Slider
Read more...

October 2017

27Oct

UK pension schemes told to give more detail on investments, costs

UK pension schemes should give more information to members about their investments and how much asset managers are charging them to run members’ money, the government said on Thursday. The move is the latest attempt by the authorities to increase transparency in the market for pensions and investments. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said a failure to provide the information could see occupational workplace pension scheme trustees fined up to 50,000 pounds from April, 2018, under the proposed...

October 27, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
26Oct

UK. Mediator picked to resolve Royal Mail pensions row with union

Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union have appointed Lynette Harris of Britain’s Central Arbitration Committee to mediate in a row over plans to replace the company’s defined benefit pension scheme. The talks, which will cover pay, pensions and other issues, will run for seven weeks and could be extended in order to reach a deal, Royal Mail said in a statement on Wednesday.  The CWU has been at odds with Royal Mail since April over its plans to save billions...

October 26, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
26Oct

UK. Fewer pensioners ‘splurging irresponsibly’

Critics said the new pension freedom rules, which have seen £14bn ($18.4bn, €15.7bn) withdrawn from pensions, were irresponsible and would encourage profligacy. Instead, money was mostly put in banks and average withdrawal per person hit a new low (£8,030) in 3Q17. Online investment platform AJ Bell suggests the FCA data shows “people aren’t on the whole splurging irresponsibly”, even if 40,000 more people chose to access their retirement pot flexibly in 3Q17 versus the same period in 2016. Engagement gap Tom Selby,...

October 26, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
25Oct

UK. Peers demand ban on pensions cold-calling after inflicting embarrassing defeat on the Government

Peers last night demanded a ban on pensioner cold-calling as the House of Lords inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the Government in the Lords. The House of Lords backed a cross-party amendment calling for unsolicited calls to be outlawed by 253 votes to 205. The Government originally pledged to ban pensioner cold calling in September last year but has since ruled out any legislation until 2020. However, a group of cross-party peers warned that the delay would see millions more people...

October 25, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
19Oct

The U.K.’s $86 Billion Pension Problem Is About to Solve Itself

For U.K. Plc, the sting of Brexit comes with an unexpected bonus. With no effort on their part, British businesses could see pension deficits that have burdened them for years be practically wiped out if the Bank of England raises interest rates as predicted and they budget for slowing gains in life expectancy, according to estimates of New York-based consultancy Mercer. That will give executives one less thing to worry about as they prepare contingency plans in case Britain can’t...

October 19, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
19Oct

UK. New products needed to defuse pensions time bomb, FCA says

The investment industry has been told by the FCA that it has a growing role in addressing the public policy challenge of inadequate retirement saving levels. FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said the government and regulators are “showing so much more interest” in the investment industry in part bacuase of recent changes to the retirement market. He said these changes had placed a greater responsibility on individuals to arrange their own long-term savings provision, resulting in investment managers being more directly...

October 19, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
18Oct

UK. OECD tells government to scrap pensions triple lock

The UK government should reform the state pension triple lock in order to afford measures to boost weak growth, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said. The OECD is the intergovernmental economic organisation of 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade, also recommended the UK increase national insurance contributions for self-employed workers. In its biennial survey of the UK economy released on Tuesday (17 October), the OECD said linking the state pension purely to wage inflation would "be fairer, while it...

October 18, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...
17Oct

UK. Pearson agrees deal to insure third of pension scheme risk

Publisher Pearson said on Tuesday it had agreed a deal to insure a third of its pension scheme liabilities totalling 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) with Legal & General and Aviva. The deal “substantially reduces” the risk that Pearson would be unable to fund future retiree benefits and was agreed at no further cost to the company, it said in a nine-month trading update. Under the so-called ‘buy-in bulk annuity’, the insurers take on some of the risk of the pension...

October 17, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...