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    From Ros Altmann:economist and pensions,
    investment and retirement policy expert

    • pensionsandsavings.com

    pensionsandsavings.com

    Hands off our investment trusts – closed-ended funds are deliberately different from open-ended funds and are designed for LONG TERM investors, not short-term trading

    Hands off our investment trusts – closed-ended funds are deliberately different from open-ended funds and are designed for LONG TERM investors, not short-term trading

    Comments 1 comment

    Hands off our brilliant investment trusts! Saba’s attacks are an existential threat to the sector and Boards must recognise the dangers before it’s too late.  Turning closed-ended funds into open-ended funds destroys their long-term value and will harm UK markets and growth.   Investment trusts comprise about a third of the FTSE 250 are a long-standing UK success story for London and Ediburgh. Closed-ended structures offer specialist portfolios of less liquid or real assets, such as infrastructure, alternative energy, small growth…

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    Ros responds to IHT consultation proposing simple flat-rate 20% levy to avoid complexity

    Ros responds to IHT consultation proposing simple flat-rate 20% levy to avoid complexity

    Comments 3 comments

    Government’s proposals for draconian inheritance tax on pension funds will be disastrous – there are much better ways to raise revenue, including a flat-rate 20% levy.  In her response to Treasury consultation taxing unused pensions, Ros Altmann warns of dangers in current proposals and suggests flat-rate 20% inheritance levy instead, giving simpler, fairer rules and less damage to future DC pension. Ros Altmann’s response to the consultation makes clear that the current proposals will be disastrous for all involved in…

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    Investment trusts under threat – investors need more protection

    Investment trusts under threat – investors need more protection

    Comments 1 comment

    Saba wants to turn investment trusts into hedge funds – that’s not what other investors bought into, but if they don’t vote, they can’t protect their positions. Investment Trusts are not short-term trading funds, they build long-term value for patient investors through economic cycles. If their investors wanted hedge funds, they could have invested elsewhere. These bids aim to profit from UK regulatory failures and inadequate investor protections – can FCA or Treasury step in to protect investors? Flawed charges…

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    Bank of England QT should be paused – it’s undermining markets, the economy and fiscal policy too

    Bank of England QT should be paused – it’s undermining markets, the economy and fiscal policy too

    Comments 0 Comment

    Bank of England should cut base rate quickly and put QT on hold.   Monetary policy is undermining growth, unsettling financial markets and damaging the Chancellor’s fiscal policy options – rates have been too high for too long. Short rates around 5% with Inflation only at 2-3%, on top of monetary tightening form QT gilt sales, leaves rates too high and will depress growth, especially after Budget tax rises. QT should be put on hold for the rest of the year…

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    WASPI women – not a penny

    WASPI women – not a penny

    Comments 8 comments

    Government disappoints millions of WASPI women.  Government refuses to pay any of them anything, despite parliamentary ombudsman findings of maladministration.  Many are in serious hardship and I would have liked to see them helped.  But after taking away winter fuel payments with no notice from the poorest pensioners, clearly pensioners are not a priority. The Government has today disappointed millions of women in their mid-sixties and early seventies. Government rejects Parliamentary Ombudsman The so-called WASPIs (Women Against State Pension Inequality),…

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    Mansion House speech – worthy intention but will it make much difference to Britain?

    Mansion House speech – worthy intention but will it make much difference to Britain?

    Comments 1 comment

    The chancellor could and should have been far more radical.   There is still no requirement to use any pension assets to back British growth.  Just merging pension funds is no guarantee of boosting returns or improving UK infrastructure. Of course I applaud the Chancellors worth intention to facilitate more pension asset investment in higher expected return projects. Her radical reforms, however, could and should have been much bolder. With £70billion of taxpayer funds going into people’s pensions each year, surely…

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    Mansion House speech tomorrow – Chancellor needs to be much bolder in ensuring pensions support British markets and growth

    Mansion House speech tomorrow – Chancellor needs to be much bolder in ensuring pensions support British markets and growth

    Comments 1 comment

    Let’s hope this year’s Mansion House speech will be much bolder in driving pension funds to boost Britain. Last year’s voluntary agreement by some pension funds to invest 5% in unlisted assets by 2030, did not stipulate any requirement for the money to back UK businesses! UK pension fund assets need to increase their massive underweighting in UK markets – as a quid pro quo for continuing to receive £70billion a year in tax and NI reliefs. Just 5% of…

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    Budget 2024 – pensioners, pensions and employers all hit

    Budget 2024 – pensioners, pensions and employers all hit

    Comments 4 comments

    Autumn Budget 2024 – Employers, Pensioners and Pensions all hit.    Higher employer National Insurance contributions likely to mean lower pay and pension contributions as employers struggle to meet rising labour costs.  Ending Inheritance Tax exemption for unused pension pots will penalise pensioners’ children and see more people taking all the money from their pensions while still relatively young.  Triple lock gives much more money to youngest pensioners, while those beyond their early seventies will see much lower State Pension…

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    Ending employer NI relief, especially if only for private sector, would be disastrous

    Ending employer NI relief, especially if only for private sector, would be disastrous

    Comments 1 comment

    Ending National Insurance relief only for private sector employer pension contributions is unjustifiable.  If public sector schemes can’t cope with ending this relief, it is a clear indication that private sector schemes will struggle and this change should not happen at all.  Damaging private sector workers, and their employers, while forcing them to pay for even better public sector pensions, would be a serious mistake.  Abolishing National Insurance relief for employer pension contributions may sound attractive in theory, but in…

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