Latest articles from Sandra Wolf

Automatic choice

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: Saving should be made easy. Savings vehicles should be trusted by people, so that they are more likely to contribute into them. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. But what about pension saving through auto-enrolment?

Women undersave due to childcare, but AE carer credits unlikely

Women do not save enough for pensions due to the persistence of the breadwinner model and a lack of confidence in their own financial aptitude, a new study shows, but a proposal to introduce carer credits to auto-enrolment was rebuffed by the pensions minister this week.

Backbook bonanza

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: Two giants are congratulating each other on a massive deal. Pension liabilities worth £6bn are to change hands between Dutch insurer Aegon's UK subsidiary and Rothesay Life, the bulk annuity specialist set up 10 years ago.

Out of fashion

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: It’s the stuff of a Hollywood blockbuster – or it could be with the right actors. Whoever plays the lawyer should wear a Panama hat pulled down over his face.

Firefighting in Port Talbot

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: Reports of the government being urged by Labour MPs to take over Tata Steel UK until a private buyer is found dominated the headlines last week, after the business was put up for sale by its owner.

Disruption, dispute – discontent?

Illustration by Ben Jennings

The news that Royal Bank of Scotland is shifting £18m of annual national insurance contributions – the increase it will face when contracting-out kicks in on April 6 – to 27,000 defined benefit members may not faze pensions lawyers, given it is legal to do so.

Artificial sweetener

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: The Lifetime Isa announced in the Budget, while presented in a sweet wrapper marked 'help the young', is not easily swallowed by some, and not everyone agrees what the actual taste will be.

PLSA launches DB taskforce as deficits spiral

PLSA Investment Conference 2016: While the combined deficit in the PPF 7800 index has reached £322.8bn, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said it has launched a task-force to “tackle the problems faced by defined benefit pension schemes”.

A pensions power struggle

Illustration by Ben Jennings

Editorial: The chancellor has pulled another rabbit out of the red case. This time it’s a tame European breed: the ‘no change on pensions tax relief ahead of the referendum’ kind. 

Schemes urged to prepare for bad investment outcomes

Source: PLSA

PLSA Investment Conference 2016: The question of what powers trustees have – if any – when things go wrong on the investment provider side received some surprising answers at the PLSA Investment Conference held in Edinburgh this week.