[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.

The Great State Pension debate rages on

There has been a lot of debate about the state pension and the triple lock across the media in recent weeks. 

Kicking things off for this week was the failure of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to confirm backing for the system long term with the Telegraph seizing on his lack of enthusiasm.

Then an article from former Conservative leader and foreign secretary William Hague for the Times suggested that ‘It’s time to unpick the triple lock on pensions.’

The Guardian reported that "'Government insiders’ believe they can justify ‘tweaking’ the triple lock formula that decides pension increase in order to save £1bn".

With the pension due to rise 8.5%, the paper reported that the government was considering stripping out public sector bonuses awarded to workers to prevent strikes over the summer, and using an earnings figure tracking the underlying level of pay growth. The resulting increase might then be around 7.8%.

So far, so stealthy, obviously briefed from inside government but also deniable.

About 28% of over 55-year-olds will purely rely on state pension on the state pension in retirement, as Money Marketing reports.

The Interactive Investor survey also found that more women than men (32% as opposed to 20%) are set to purely rely on the state pension for retirement.

The same amount of 18-34-year-olds as the over 55-year-olds will be solely reliant on the state pension with a slightly lower number for the 35-54-year-olds (23%) on current plans.

There is a lot to consider here. First the tense used in the story! Some of these age groups have time to start building up pensions.

Second, this story and others have provoked some interesting debates on social media and actually for once I think it might be worth noting one discussion on X/Twitter. The Lang Cat’s Mark Locke produced a thread under the heading "Some things to consider about the State Pension and #TripleLock, for Pensions Awareness Week.

This is perhaps the key tweet/xeet from Mark.

“State pensions are paid out of general taxation. It’s always been that way. There is no pot of money with your name attached. This is still quite a common misconception... “I’ve paid in all my life, I’m entitled to..”

He managed to get two former pension ministers and one former shadow pension minister, the Conservative's Guy Opperman, Lib Dem's Steve Webb and Labour's Gregg McClymont all to agree.

Interesting debate and a demonstration that X still has its uses in fostering financial services debates, amid the conspiracies and other online carnage.

But the awareness element is rather important. Most of the public and perhaps especially retirees simply do not see it that way. We might ask should the government and future governments be telling everyone that this is a benefit albeit a contributory one.

The FCA says it was “disappointed” to find evidence of poor advice in the lifetime mortgage space as part of the regulator's review of later life mortgage firms. Advisers profess themselves unsurprised.

The regulator says it will be intervening "robustly" with firms to ensure improvements are made, as FTAdviser reports.

One in six people have never reviewed their pension according to research by the People’s Partnership, as Corporate Adviser reports.

Around 24% of respondents examine their pension savings less than once a year while 20% do so yearly and 11% do so every six months.

Is that terrible news for a system such as auto-enrolment that relies on inertia to a reasonable degree? Debate and discuss.

Rental affordability is at its worst level for a decade, according to a new report from online estate agent Zoopla reported in Mortgage Strategy.

The company’s Rental Market Report shows that it now costs people, on average, 28.4% of their gross monthly earnings to cover their rent. This is compared to an average of 27.2% over the last 10 years.

Some renters may well feel that underestimates their recent experience. But it certainly underlines why it may make sense to get on the housing ladder.

This makes for rather grim reading for one big advisory operation. New Model Adviser suggests that concerns about tech systems and the flexible model plus perhaps much more importantly scrutiny over client cash and suitability may lie behind FCA restrictions at Raymond James.

Just an observation – firms which get into a bit of a tight spot regulation-wise may feel it is wise to batten down the hatches. But, within the law and their own ethical approach, publications are free to write what they want. This feels like a bit of a stand-off though of course Raymond James will be most concerned about the regulator, whatever its relations with NMA.

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.