pensions

GOVERNMENT FINANCES are expected to miss Budget forecasts even though they improved in August, according to this morning's papers.

Pensions reform features heavily in this morning's papers with the government's tax plans coming under fire and pensions fund trustees being warned they could face legal action fior failing to take their share from US securities class actions.

Up to 40% of people retiring could be eligible to receive a bigger pension by considering an impaired life or enhanced rate annuity, instead of a standard rate annuity, claims Bank of Scotland Annuity Service (BOSAS).

UK workers who put off starting retirement investing until their 35th birthdays risk spending the first 15% of their working day for the rest of their working lives just to build up a retirement income equal to two-thirds of current average income.

THE LEGAL TUSSLE between Equitable Life and Ernst & Young is mentioned in all this morning's papers with the case due to resume today, barring any last-minute settlement.

We've had several responses to the government's latest marketing campaign for stakeholder products, the launch of which government officials deem to have been a "success".

BRITAIN'S PENSION funds transferred £20bn from equities into bonds between 2002 and 2004 as trustees became increasingly concerned about the volatility of the stock market and the effects of the ageing population, a study has found, reports the Times...

How do you think the FSA would respond if a financial services firm said something was a success when it had in fact been a failure? Could this be considered misleading under the terms of financial promotion rules?

GORDON BROWN on Tuesday bluntly rejected trade union demands for concessions on workers' rights and pensions, telling them there could be "no return to the old conflicts and disorder of the past", says the Financial Times .

The government has launched a consumer stakeholder awareness campaign which it says builds on the "success" of take-up so far and gives guidance on what individuals should invest in for the short, medium and long-term.