Royal London profit rises after new business sales August 8, 2025 Royal London reported strong profit growth in the first half of the year after an increase in new business sales. The insurance company recorded a 15 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £166m, compared to £144m in 2024, crediting its higher business sales and bulk purchase annuity buy ins. The group completed eight BPA [...]
Another blow to London as Just Group goes to Canadian manager July 31, 2025 The London Stock Exchange lost yet another constituent to foreign ownership on Thursday, after pension insurer Just Group agreed a bumper takeover deal from Canadian asset manager Brookfield Wealth Solutions (BWS). The FTSE 250 firm’s board told markets it had accepted a £2.4bn offer from the North American company in a deal valuing the firm [...]
Women at risk of running out of pension wealth seven years into retirement July 24, 2025 Women are retiring with significantly less pension wealth than men, leaving them at greater risk of running out of wealth just seven years into retirement, new analysis has found. Gen X women, aged 55-59, have just £81,000 in their pension on average, compared to the £156,000 held by men of the same age, leaving them [...]
Brutal bean-counters break the news: we’re utterly broke July 9, 2025 These are difficult times for a news organisation that likes to think of itself as being on the glass-half-full side of life. Optimism is in short supply, and whatever reserves remained after 12 months of this government were snatched away from us yesterday by those bean-counting assassins at the Office for Budget Responsibility. Once a [...]
State pension could face insolvency by 2036 despite tax hikes July 6, 2025 Britain’s state pension could become financially unsustainable as early as 2036, despite recent increases in National Insurance contributions, according to new modelling by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI). The think tank warned the Treasury is on course to spend more on welfare payouts than it receives in National Insurance receipts within just over a decade. [...]
Apollo-backed group makes £5.7bn swoop for Pension Insurance Corporation July 4, 2025 Athora – the European insurance group backed by US private equity giant Apollo – has struck a £5.7bn takeover deal for the UK’s Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). The acquisition will create a group with combined assets worth near £112m and covering the pensions of more than three million people across Europe. The takeover marks one [...]
Exclusive: Kemi Badenoch makes her pitch to the City July 1, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has apologised to the business community for any trust lost under previous Tory governments, insisting that “the Conservative party is the natural party of business.” The Tory leader said “I’m sorry if at any time over the last 14 years we did not seem like that,” adding that hers is now “the only [...]
Blow to London Stock Exchange as Scottish Widows plots huge selloff June 19, 2025 The London Stock Exchange has been dealt another hammer blow after it emerged one of the UK’s biggest pension funds plans to massively cut its allocation for UK equities. The Edinburgh-based business, which manages as much as £72bn in pension assets, intends to slash the UK equities allocation in its highest growth portfolio from 12 [...]
Pension and ISA reform can reverse London’s stock market malaise June 16, 2025 London must back ambition to reverse our stock market malaise, but pension and ISA reform may be the first step, writes Alastair King.
Reeves’ spending spree could open £20bn gap – which taxes will rise? June 12, 2025 Rachel Reeves splashed the taxpayer cash in her inaugural Spending Review, raising expectations the Chancellor may be coming back for more tax revenue in the Autumn if her growth ambitions are not met. Reeves is set to hand out an extra £190bn in government spending over the course of the parliament, in what she described [...]