pensionsandsavings.com

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

    • pensionsandsavings.com

    pensionsandsavings.com

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    Author: Ros Altmann

    Investment trusts under threat – investors need more protection

    Investment trusts under threat – investors need more protection

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    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

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    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

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    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?

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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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    Brilliant news at last for investors in UK listed investment trusts

    Brilliant news at last for investors in UK listed investment trusts

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    At last there is relief for uk investment trusts and their investors as fca issues emergency cost disclosure guidance. Treasury ministers have prevailed to ensure the fca issues emergency new rules that will properly inform consumers instead of misleading them. The outlook for investors in sustainable long term investments in infrastructure, alternative energy and real estate is now much brighter.   At  last Ministers have ensured that the FCA acts with urgency to remedy the misleading information that has so…

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    Winter Fuel Payments votes in Parliament are a chance to reconsider this irresponsible decision

    Winter Fuel Payments votes in Parliament are a chance to reconsider this irresponsible decision

    Comments 8 comments

    Today is the last opportunity for Parliament to protect the poorest pensioners who are at risk this winter. My Fatal Motion in the House of Lords to cancel the Winter Fuel Payments Statutory Instrument will be debated later today. It is the speed and timing of this measure, with no notice, no impact assessment and no mitigation or protection for the very poorest, that I am opposing, rather than the continued payments for wealthy pensioners, which I have long opposed. The SLSC has warned…

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