Pensions

The Chancellor has announced cuts to pensions tax relief from 2014/15, meaning individuals will only be able to put away £40,000 annually free of tax.

Retirees with pension pots worth less than £18,000 will no longer have to pay higher-tax rate when taking a pension pot as cash, according to reports today.

CHEAP ADVICE?

Retirement Planner's round-up of the top pension stories this week.

Further changes to the tax relief available on pensions - as has been predicted ahead of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement this week - may destroy public faith in saving for retirement, according to financial services consultants Punter Southall.

The Financial Services Authority's (FSA) plan to raise the amount of capital self-invested personal pension (SIPP) providers have to hold will spur further consolidation in the market, the chairman of Mattioli Woods has said.

Financial planning firm Henwood Court has written an open letter to Chancellor George Osborne calling on him to abandon auto-enrolment for firms with fewer than 50 employees.

Origen Financial Services is to launch a restricted advice proposition for the workplace market in the new year.

RETIREMENT

Fiona Murphy asks what the FSA's capital adequacy consultation means for the SIPP industry