pensions

The Government today promises personal accounts will "complement rather than compete" with existing pension provision.

Around 12 million people have never reviewed their pension plans while a further 1.37 million have not carried out a pension review in the last five years, according to research by Barings Asset Management.

In usual ‘dance of the seven veils' style, the Government is slowly teasing us with glimpses of what the personal accounts scheme will look like.

Pension campaigners have expressed their delight at the House of Lords support for the establishment of a pension protection lifeboat fund.

The head of the Institutional Review of Pension Organisations has written to the Department of Work and Pensions highlighting a potential gap in the regulation of IFAs and a potential need for legislation.

Government amendments to the Pensions Bill requiring protected rights to purchase a 50% spouses pension is a 'second-guesisng' exercise which is sending out a confused message to the market, claims Aegon Scottish Equitable.

Around 10% of Addition Voluntary Contribution schemes are failing to offer members the Open Market Option on annuities despite a legal requirement, claims Hewitt.

The pension scheme deficits of the 200 largest defined benefit schemes has fallen to its lowest level of £4bn, leaving nearly half of the schemes in surplus.

HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed it will make changes to current legislation to allow Australian schemes to continue to be included as Qualified Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) where appropriate.

The Pension Protection Fund has published its updated management plan which reveals running costs for the organisation will almost double by 2009/10 to more than £22m from around £12m in 2006/07.