Pension experts have welcomed the clarity the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has established for defined benefit (DB) pension transfers through its updated rules. But they warn further, lengthy, consultation may not be the best way to address issues of poor practice that have come to prominence in recent months.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has backtracked on a proposal to change its position that an adviser should assume that a Defined Benefit (DB) pension transfer is “unsuitable” for a client.
The UK government plan to give The Pensions Regulator teeth to fine and imprison individuals who endanger defined benefit schemes, has been branded slow and impractical.
When markets fall, consumers who have transferred out of a defined benefit (DB) scheme and started accessing their pots could potentially face a crisis in their retirement, a director from advice firm Tuto Associates has argued.
Nucleus, the adviser-built wrap platform, has brought together a panel of experts and financial advisers to help the IFA community navigate its way through the defined benefit (DB) transfer “minefield”.
The UK High Court has ruled that communications group BT cannot change a pension scheme from the retail price index (RPI) to the generally lower consumer price index, placing more significance on an imminent government white paper on defined benefit pension schemes, a legal expert says.
The chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority has wholly rejected a report from the Work & Pensions Select Committee that said the UK watchdog of “sleepwalking into another mis-selling scandal”.
Just a day after Carillion entered liquidation, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has warned that it has already seen signs that scammers are looking to exploit defined benefit (DB) scheme members.
The Financial Conduct Authority will collect data from every UK firm that advises on defined benefit (DB) pension transfers, as part of a probe into practices across the market.
Consultants are predicting 2018 will be the best opportunity for companies to transfer defined benefit pension schemes to an insurer since the banking crisis in 2008.
Continuing to provide defined benefit pension transfer advice to members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) could put St James’s Place “outside its risk appetite”, the firm said.
The chair of the UK’s Work and Pensions Select Committee has described the British Steel Pension Scheme as a “honeypot for scammers”, as St James’s Place confirms it has stopped accepting transfer requests from scheme members in an unrelated move.
