Britain’s pension deficits grew by £100bn in August alone September 1, 2016 Britain's companies were urged to think of plugging pension holes as “part of the furniture” of financial planning after new research showed that deficits grew by a staggering £100bn during August. The PwC Skyval index, which covers 6,000 British defined benefit pension schemes, revealed that aggregate deficits had widened to £710bn by the end of August. [...]
Don’t overreact to vast pension scheme deficits: We need a new normal for how they’re measured September 1, 2016 Pension schemes are faced with serious challenges following the EU referendum result and the Bank of England’s recent stimulus package. Both events have driven down long-term gilt yields. As a result, for defined benefit pension schemes valuing their liabilities using gilt discount rates, deficits continue to grow. Our Skyval Index shows that deficits have increased [...]
Star fund manager Neil Woodford lambasts “frustratingly rife” short-termism in the City September 1, 2016 Legendary fund manager Neil Woodford has condemned “frustratingly rife” short-termism in the City, lending his support to a stinging criticism of executive pay levels and a failure of investors to hold management teams to account. The founder of Woodford Investment Management has bemoaned fund managers who “do not behave or think like owners, because they [...]
Experts welcome Treasury proposals to allow tax-free draw-downs to fund financial advice August 31, 2016 With millions of workers being automatically enrolled into a workplace pension the Treasury launched a consultation to ensure that they are adequately advised in preparation for retirement. The launch follows an announcement by the government in the March 2016 Budget to consult on recommendations by the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR). The FAMR proposals were to allow [...]
Five ways to weed out bad job candidates at interview August 31, 2016 Searching for the ideal candidate for a job can be a long and drawn-out process and making sure they are the right fit for the company is a challenge. Once you have narrowed down the search process by looking through hundreds of CVs, there is still the task of meeting them face to face and [...]
Pension or property: Which is the better option for your retirement? August 31, 2016 The Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane drew ire from the pensions industry for the second time this year, when he claimed that property was a better investment option for retirement than a pension in an interview with The Sunday Times this weekend. “It ought to be pensions but it’s almost certainly property,” Haldane said. [...]
European exchange-traded funds and products top $539bn in July August 30, 2016 Assets under management at Europe's exchange-traded funds and products were at all-time highs at the end of July after being boosted by strong inflows and market gains. Growing by $9.4bn (£7.2bn) in July, assets totalled $539bn and were spread across over two thousand different European-listed exchanged-traded funds (ETF) and products (ETP). ETFs are usually index-tracking instruments whose value is linked to the [...]
Feeling busy? Here’s how to prevent important tasks falling through the cracks August 30, 2016 Being a business leader is tough enough without tortured metaphors – but being in charge means the workday is pretty much taken up by plate-spinning. Basically: whatever you accomplish, there’s still a whole lot of that stuff needing to be done. Here’s how to make it easier: Read more: How much the productivity puzzle costs the UK Stop [...]
Four ways working will change over the next 20 years August 30, 2016 Robots, the generation gap and increased employee demands are just some of the factors expected to change the workforce over the next 20 years, according to new research. The Future of the Workforce, a report commissioned by UBS Wealth Management, sets out the four main ways in which the workforce is "set to significantly change [...]
Phew, it’s a scorcher: How to cope with a boiling hot office August 30, 2016 The office temperature is one of the most common employee gripes. For most of the year, air conditioning casts an Arctic chill over our desks. It’s even become a gender issue: air conditioning is calibrated to men’s body temperatures and metabolisms, often leaving women uncomfortably cold. But during the all-too-fleeting British summer, many offices have [...]
