Think you will retire on £42,000 a year? That’ll be £1m up front… May 17, 2015 Britain’s workers are chronically unprepared for retirement, a new report by one of the UK’s biggest life insurers reveals today, with just seven per cent putting in enough money to meet their expectations. The research, conducted by Watermelon on behalf of Aegon, found a vast gap between the amount of money people expect to receive [...]
Just Retirement diversifies after pension reform May 12, 2015 Just Retirement yesterday reported a 22 per cent fall in sales over nine months, but said demand for its newer products had protected it from a harsher knock from British pension rule changes. Pension changes, announced last March, mean people who are retiring no longer need to buy an interest-bearing annuity with their pension savings. [...]
Standard Life assets rise in face of pensions and annuities reforms April 29, 2015 The figures Standard Life's assets under administration rose by five per cent to £311.9bn in the first quarter, as the savings and assets manager flexed its muscle in the face of new UK laws allowing savers to cash in their pension annuities. Third party net inflows of £3.7bn – 73 per cent of which came [...]
Don’t let the politicians mess up your pension April 23, 2015 It can often feel like politicians are only there to get in our way. The coming General Election brings with it a host of sizeable risks – whether the threat of damaging new interventions in markets, the prospect of months of confidence-sapping uncertainty over the stability of the next government, or the possibility that a [...]
Surviving the lifetime allowance: You could face 55pc tax on your pension savings unless you plan carefully April 23, 2015 The chancellor’s generosity couldn’t go on forever. Just days before his transformational reforms to pensions were enacted – the end of the compulsory purchase of annuities has at last given savers real power over their money when they reach 55 – George Osborne announced that the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA) would fall from £1.25m to [...]
Rich pensioners sitting on £16bn of untapped leisure spending April 21, 2015 Wealthy British pensioners added £37bn to the economy in leisure and hospitality spending last year, according to research from Barclays today. But they could spend an extra £16bn, if firms only realised the consumer group had such financial resources, the report into Britain’s aging population showed. The average Brit spends £2,486 on leisure and hospitality each [...]
IFS slam Labour and Tory plans targetting pension tax relief as “damaging and counterproductive” April 12, 2015 Tory and Labour plans to cut pension relief for top earners have come under fire from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Director of the IFS, Paul Johnson warned that even though both sets of policies apply to a relatively small number of people they nevertheless could prove to be "complex, damaging and counter-productive". [...]
Pensioners keen to take control of retirement plans, survey finds April 9, 2015 Fears that pensioners would fritter away their savings on luxury purchases have not been borne out since the rules surrounding pensions were changed at the beginning of this week. The reforms have granted savers new freedoms, allowing them to access their pension pots for the first time, and just one per cent of 50-75 year [...]
Banks to make buy-to-let mortgage rules simpler in bid to boost transparency April 7, 2015 Dozens of banks and building societies promised to make the small print on buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages simpler and clearer, in a bid to make the products as transparent and straightforward as more heavily regulated retail mortgages. The aim is to make borrowers’ obligations clearer, so that BTL customers understand how much they have to pay [...]
Don’t get burned by the buy-to-let boom: Funding retirement with rental income could turn into a disaster April 7, 2015 The new pensions freedoms are finally here and many savers will be considering taking a lump sum from their savings. Investing in a buy-to-let property to fund retirement may seem like a good idea, but pensions experts are warning of the risks. Eighteen years after the creation of the first buy-to-let mortgage, this form of [...]