[email protected]

  • About Us
  • Events
  • Industry News
  • Infomix
  • Business Development Updates
  • Newsletter
Adviser Home
  • CPD Centre
  • Development Solutions
    • AXA Investment Managers
    • Tacit Investment Management
    • Aegon Corporate Protection
    • Tax Planning Support
    • Outsourced Investments
    • Orbis Invest Differently
    • Fidelity Adviser Solutions
    • Aegon - Supporting financial advice
    • Tax Planning Investments
  • Resources
    • Marketing
      • The Yardstick Agency - Organising events can generate new business. But is your presentation fit for purpose?
      • The Yardstick Agency - 4 powerful ways to grow your podcast audience
      • The Yardstick Agency - Harness LinkedIn’s power with these 6 practical ideas from our favourite experts.
      • The Yardstick Agency - Are brochures still relevant in 2022?
      • Faith Liversedge: How to convert clients to your ongoing service
      • The Yardstick Agency - 4 things you should never leave off your website’s fees page
      • Money Marketing - Podcast: Do we expect more for less from advisers?
      • AdviceBridge - The figures don’t lie: Why advice firms must provide all three engagement channels (adviser, digital, and hybrid) for all client types
      • Personal Finance Society - What It Means to Tell a Good Story About Your Business
      • The Yardstick Agency - 3 simple changes every adviser and planner can make now to get more referrals
      • The Yardstick Agency - 6 occasions when being too cautious will damage your marketing
      • Creating a successful digital advice model
      • Blogging Checklist
      • Marketing Checklist
      • SEO checklist
      • Website checklist
      • Corporate Design
    • Proposition
      • New Guide to Retirement Income Advice
      • Advisor Perspectives - You Provide More Value than You Realize
      • IFA Magazine - 4 things you’ve forgotten about the value of your advice
      • Royal London - Feeling the benefit of financial advice: How professional support helps to improve emotional wellbeing
      • FTAdviser - Q&A: Advisers are missing a trick with business protection
      • FTAdviser - How to get younger clients on board with financial advice
      • Money Marketing: The future of advice is going to be dynamic
      • Royal London - What stops people from seeking financial advice?
      • FTAdviser - If your business is to thrive, you will have to advise remotely
      • Always Be Content - Dare to Care: How Doing Good Helps Business Do Better
      • Finding your advice style with lifestyle planning
      • Aegon - How your clients can become a financial wellbeing ‘all-rounder’
      • Aviva - Generation rent: the protection they need
      • FTAdviser - How suitable are financial products for young savers?
      • AIG - How to: reinvigorate your critical illness sales process (CPD)
      • Royal London - Does sustainable investing belong in fixed income?
      • Advisor Perspectives - Why Prospects Choose You
      • Advisor Perspectives: 10 Signs You Need to Be a “Hybrid” Advisor
      • This is Money - Mind the money age gap: Research claims over-65s are smarter about pensions and investing due to a lack of financial education for the young
      • The Institute for Fiscal Studies - Understanding the gender pension gap
      • How to introduce clients to protection
      • Handling vulnerable clients who want equity release
      • Shift in retirement journeys set to reshape the market
      • Four in five UK adults say they don’t have a ‘pension will’
      • Combining pensions and property
      • The Value of Advice - an insiders guide
      • Adviser Home Guide to Innovation
      • Designing Your Service Proposition
      • Effective Cash Management
      • Business Protection
      • Rohan Sivajoti: The one page business plan
      • Protection conversations increasingly common for advisers
  • Sustainable Investments
  • About Us
  • Events
  • Industry News
  • Infomix
  • Business Development Updates
  • Newsletter

Weekly Updates

John Lappin

Our Industry Commentator with his top news links each week.

Big pensions week - AE could be extended, dashboard dashed (again) and 12.5 million underpensioned says Govt

While the UK’s endless political brouhaha continues, there were some pension policy developments with a long-term bearing on the public’s finances or more specifically the public’s future finances.

There were at least three pension stories of note last week, one that could prove to be a significant policy development, one that represents a significant warning and another which some argue represents a blow to pension saving or at least awareness.

FTAdviser reports a Department for Work and Pensions warning that 12.5 million people are undersaving for retirement. This has prompted pension providers to call for further pension reform.

Could the following be one of those reforms?

We often hear stories about private member bills suggesting pension reforms of one kind or another. But if such a bill gains government backing, then it becomes much more significant.

The DWP has backed Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis’ Private Member’s Bill incorporating plans to expand auto-enrolment (AE).

The bill, which was published on 2 March and passed the second reading stage last week, seeks two extensions to AE, abolishing the lower earnings limit for contributions and reducing the age for being automatically enrolled to 18.

I would say that this changes the shape of AE significantly though it is not, of course, a panacea in terms of undersaving.

It will be interesting to hear industry views on practicalities and indeed affordability of contributions and on the potential means-testing of various benefits among the poorest retirees. It is, potentially, a significant reset and makes the UK look and feel more more like some comprehensive systems around the world.

The final pension development is the news that the dashboard has been delayed again.

As the FT reported, pensions minister Laura Trott announced on Thursday that the government would undertake a “reset of the pension dashboards programme (PDP)”, adding that the project had been a complex undertaking and a new chair would soon be appointed to develop a delivery plan.

It would be great to hear some adviser views which I often think are missing from the overall debate on pensions, savings and investing.

Of course, another significant public policy debate, that can often sit alongside general pension concerns is the advice gap and the following story falls into that category.

Vanguard had entered the advice market with some fanfare but has now withdrawn less than two years after launch.

We are told the average age of the client for this service was 38 years old. However, this is quite an interesting line in one report presumably from inside Vanguard - Money Marketing understands that Vanguard was expecting an older customer profile.

There has been a lot of social media debate regarding this story including a slightly silly discussion about whether advisers were happy or sad, the difficulty of providing advice that isn't full service, whether it was ever a competitive threat and whether or not big players are essential to close the advice gap or not. Debate and discuss!

There was another development in an unfortunate saga. The recently formed Association of Pension Transfer Specialists (APTS) wants to join an Upper Tribunal case to review the FCA’s redress scheme for steelworkers. The APTS is disputing the basis for some FCA calculations

Veterans among readers may remember that some of the disputes in the early 2000s pension review centred on how redress was calculated and a Treasury select committee intervention brought significant change which did favour IFAs to a degree. Some might say there is nothing new under the sun or certainly not when it comes to financial services disputes.

Finally, I thought this was an interesting splash in the FT on Saturday – sources inside the government – one presumes the Treasury and at ARM – are blaming the FCA for the firm’s decision not to plump for a dual listing in New York and London.

The implication is that the FCA got in the way. There is clearly a tension between unnecessary paperwork and delay and maintaining standards as a listings centre and I am not sure that trade off is properly considered here. ARM parent Softbank also appears to be blaming political uncertainty and lack of a national semiconductor strategy.

There are multitude of issues here, but it is important to keep an eye on the City’s fortunes in terms of the public finances but maybe also for IFAs based in London and the south east.

Back

Our Sponsors & Partners

Previous
Next

Contact Us

  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Data / GDPR
  • Privacy Statement

Social

Follow us to stay up to date with the latest industry news

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Newsletter Sign Up

Fancy getting all the latest news direct to your inbox?

Please do not fill in the above field to help us identify genuine requests.

We exist to help financial advisers run, develop and market their business

Adviser Home

© 2025 Adviser Home

Website by Clear

Back To Top

Sign up to the Adviser Home newsletter

Please leave the above box empty.

Are you an adviser or provider?

Find out more about our weekly bulletins here. You can unsubscribe from our communications at any time.

We’ll only use your data in compliance with GDPR. Our full policy can be found here.