Two new surveys have revealed the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on people heading towards retirement. According to research by Scottish Widows, some 15 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women have reduced pension contributions to cope with rising prices. Scottish Widows calculates that – for someone aged 40 cutting back […]

By the time we reach our 50s, we are often spending more time in the dentist’s chair ensuring our teeth are in good working order, and with the NHS option becoming less available around the country, many of those in a position to do so are looking at the option of taking out insurance. But […]

Media reports that the Government, currently looking to plug huge gaps in its borrowing, plans to move forward changes to the State Pension Age (SPA) could have major implications for anyone who had been planning to retire in the mid-2030s. The new State Pension, currently slightly over £9,600 for those who have made their full […]

It’s Stress Awareness Week (7-11 November)… so how stressed are YOU about your later life planning? According to Aviva, more than three in five people (61%) feel stressed when they think about their retirement – a figure that rises to almost three-quarters (74%) of 25–34-year-olds. Reassuringly, it appears that the close to retirement people are, […]

If you have any gaps in your National Insurance record, now might just be a very good time to plug them. The generous Government scheme which allows people to fill historic gaps in their NI record will come to an end in less than six months – and financial services company LCP is urging those […]

Together with purchasing the family home, pensions are usually one of the largest investments couples will make during their lifetime. So common sense would dictate that they would be high on the agenda when it comes to a divorce settlement. However, according to a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request by St James’s Place, of […]

30 October marks National Pension Tracing Day, where people are encouraged to track down lost pensions, and a new poll of 2,000 people carried out by Opinium on behalf of Hargreaves Lansdowne shows the importance of checking out the possibility that somewhere there is a handy pension pot with your name on it… According to […]

Millions of us have more than one pension – especially since the introduction of automatic enrolment in 2012. And, for workers outside of the public sector, these pensions are likely to be a Defined Contribution (DC) or “pot of money” arrangement. Under current rules, every time the worker changes jobs they will be enrolled into […]

Annuities were once the most popular route for retiring investors, with some 90% plumping for an annuity as a home for their pension pot… until pension freedoms brought in the prospect of higher returns than what was being offered at the time. Currently only about 10% of savers look to annuities. But the stresses in […]

It was what was not in the Kwasi Kwarteng’s controversial “mini-Budget” as much as what was included that has exercised Mark Soper ACII… Well, this certainly has been an event leaving much of the UK and global financial communities – including the IMF – totally astonished. Emergency meetings with banks, a £65 billion Bond-buying intervention […]