More than 100,000 retirement savers gave up rights to their workplace direct benefit pensions last year in favour of a cash lump sum. With a debate raging in the financial industry trying to decide if switching out of a direct benefit scheme is a sound financial decision, it’s time to look at some reasons why […]
Pensioners Regret Not Saving Enough Retirement Cash
January 8, 2016
The biggest regret for most pensioners is that they failed to start saving or make the right decisions about their retirement savings early enough, according to new research. One in four pensioners regret not starting to save earlier in life, while one in five now realise they should have saved more. The research by The […]
Retirement Shock Kicks In When You’re 35
November 15, 2015
If you are around 35 years old a pensions reality check is about to set in and alter your perceptions about savings, according to a new survey. At 35, you have reached the age when the concept of retirement and how much money you need to provide a comfortable income start to hit home. Forget […]
Pensions Beat Property As Retirement Savings
November 12, 2015
Landlords and investors have constant arguments about which is the best investment – but thanks to official figures we now know the answer. Experts at the Office of National Statistics found retirement savers expect to make more from property than those stashing cash into workplace pensions, even though most savers believed their money was safer […]
Savers Don’t Know How Much Money They Have
October 15, 2015
More than half of workers approaching retirement have confessed they have no idea how much they have saved to fund their lifestyle when they give up work. The shock response was the result of asking more than 3,000 workers aged between 45 and 64 years old about their financial plans for retirement. The survey, by […]
Pension Traps That Leave You Short In Retirement
September 16, 2015
Governments are making clear that individuals have a personal responsibility for making sure they have enough money to finance a comfortable retirement and they cannot expect more than basic aid from the state. Many countries are setting up workplace pensions schemes, like auto-enrolment in the UK, to help workers save more when they are younger. […]
Malta Continues to Embrace QROPS
January 21, 2015
As a global financial hub, Malta continues to emerge, and pension providers continue to be drawn to the Mediterranean island to set up new schemes. With flexibility, stability and a high level of regulation being among its more prominent features, Malta also benefits from having more than 65 double taxation agreements in place (with more […]
SiPP Savers Face Tighter Investment Rules
March 12, 2014
Pensioner savers with self-invested personal pensions (SiPPs) are about to have their investment choice limited by regulators. The Financial Conduct Authority believes too many SiPP savers are putting their retirement cash into risky investments, so is moving to tighten up the rules. The FCA is also looking at altering how much cash SiPP providers should […]
Waitrose’s ‘golden pension’ under fire
February 4, 2014
With its 3.1% rise in sales over the festive period, and its consequent cementing in the key Christmas trading period, you may have been thinking all is rosy at upmarket grocer Waitrose. Yet beneath the record sales is a record pension deficit currently totalling GBP 840 million. Revealed after an investigation in March 2013, the […]
How the self-employed can save for retirement
January 21, 2014
According to the UK’s Office of National Statistics, there were approximately 4.25 million self-employed workers in October 2013. Whilst independence is one of the biggest advantages of being self-employed, it also causes problems, and not least with regards to saving for a pension. The state pension With a current worth of GBP 110.15 each week, […]
