Pensions

AXA Wealth has added two London & Colonial (L&C) pension products to its Elevate platform to offer advisers more investment options after the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).

High earners will be about £1,000 a year worse off following the government's planned state pension reforms, the pensions minister has admitted.

FIVE THINGS

IFAs will be hit with a "tsunami" of requests for information about corporate pensions in the next four years, forcing them to deal with the sector, according to pensions expert Steve Bee.

Poorer retirees will no longer have to pay higher-rate tax when they take a small pension pot as cash.

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.