PENSIONS NEWS
Aries monitors every development in new and proposed legislation and official guidance. Clients are kept up to date via the website, email alerts and tweets. Aries serves as a one-stop source of intelligence on everything that is going on and coming up. Aries doesn't miss anything of significance.
Here is a selection from our most recent headlines. You can get the fuller details by sending us an email - just click here to fire one off.
On Tuesday 3 December, Aries attended this Transparency Task Force (TTF) event, hosted by Mayer Brown and sponsored by Cairn Consulting, Switchfoot Teams, and the Pension Scams Industry Group.
Andy Agathangelou began by explaining a bit about the organisation he founded. In a nutshell, the TTF is:
services sector to be more transparent, truthful and trustworthy."
Mr Agathangelou argued that "the financial ecosystem is profoundly important to the wellbeing of society, the global economy and political stability." Unfortunately, in a recent study by Edelman (the world's biggest PR firm), Financial Services was voted the least trusted sector, just behind Consumer Packaged Goods, Energy, and Fashion. This is the sad result of multiple failures, including hidden costs,
Following enrolment for the Manage and Register Pension Schemes service, it is possible to add administrators and assistants. However, this should
be completed before they log in to use the service. Otherwise, they will be treated as a new scheme administrator: a second enrolment will cause errors on HMRC systems.
Similarly, practitioners will only be able to use one practitioner ID for each Corporation Tax UTR or National
On Wednesday 20 November, Aries attended this Pensions Management Institute morning seminar. We think much of it will be interesting to you.
Jonathan Watts-Lay, (Director, Wealth at Work) began the day explaining why avoiding poor transfer outcomes has become a focal point. 'Freedom and Choice', our then-Chancellor George Osborne's 2014 DC flexibility initiative, changed the landscape:
1. DC members (over 55) could take their pots as cash.
2. DB members could not, unless transferring their benefit value to DC.
3. As a precaution, the advice requirement was introduced for DB CETVs of £30k or more.
4. High CETVs, combined with this new flexibility incentive, created a 'perfect storm'.
The demand for DB schemes to provide transfer quotations has rocketed.
The impact of the pension tax rules on NHS staff is well documented and the Government has consulted on
how to prevent the tax regime from driving clinicians to reduce work commitments - the busy winter season is coming.
The General Election has unceremoniously obstructed an official response, making a swift resolution unlikely before the end of the tax year. Consequently, NHS England and NHS Improvement have decided to take