The government's probe into allowing early access was a political rather than practical move and the Treasury knew the idea would be rejected, a lawyer has claimed.

AJ Bell boosted its assets under administration 20% in the six months to the end of March, from £12.6bn to £15.1bn.

SIPP investors' demand for unregulated collective investment schemes is on the rise, despite a series of high profile failings and regulatory warnings about the products.

HMRC has backtracked on rules that could have left some investors trapped in poor personal pensions, in response to pressure from pension providers.

The poorest 50% contributed just 6% of the total pension savings made by 50-64-year-olds in the UK between 2006 and 2008, figures show.

Troubled building society Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) has agreed the terms of a proposed merger with Yorkshire Building Society.

Employers are lagging behind government policy on auto-enrolment into workplace pensions and it will be difficult to enforce their compliance, experts warn.

Pensions provider AJ Bell has added an ISA and a dealing account to its Sippdeal platform, and will now offer an annual fund rebate of up to 0.5% across all three accounts.

The Prudential's correction payments for investors with Scottish Amicable pensions will create additional costs for IFAs and clients, an adviser warns.

Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management has withdrawn an advertisement on Google for its VCT brokerage service following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).