Retirement

Charles Stanley Direct has cut its share dealing rate by 25% to £7.50 per trade for the whole of January, in a bid to encourage clients to annually rebalance their portfolios.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the state pension will continue to rise by at least 2.5% a year until 2020 if the Conservatives win the next election.

Pensioners should be able to switch their annuity contract in a similar way to switching mortgages, Steve Webb has said.

The majority of employers are in favour of using auto-escalation schemes to increase contribution rates in defined contribution (DC) schemes, according to research from the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA).

Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder and former CEO of Hargreaves Lansdown, has been given a CBE in the New Year's Honours list, while former Bank of England (BoE) deputy governor Paul Tucker has been knighted.

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Consumer group Which? is among four organisations awarded ‘super-complainant' status by the government, meaning it has the power to present complaints to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which must respond.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has begun contacting clients of failed firm Tailormade, which was a major distributor of troubled overseas property company Harlequin Property.

The government's plans to limit charges on pension schemes used for automatic enrolment have been labelled "not fit for purpose" in an official report.

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