Jeremy Hunt’s Plans, Being Organised at the End, and Other Good Stuff
A pension is for life, not just for Christmas
…according to chancellor Jeremy Hunt in his Autumn Statement announcement last month. The chancellor announced that a worker would potentially have the legal right to decide into which pension their employer pays their regular contributions, as opposed to the current system where a company has one workplace scheme for their employees, and there is no individual choice.
A strange one this, and I’m not sure what I make of it. I suppose we’d best not get too worked up quite yet - it is only a promise to have a consultation after all - but it is, yet again, another change to pension legislation. Queue the collective sigh.
Have we had more big pension announcements than we have had Prime Ministers in the past five or so years? It’d be a close-run contest.
Broadly I am in favour of anything that simplifies pensions and makes it easier for people to keep a track of them. But I’m not sure that this idea is going to be simple for employers and their payroll teams. Anything but. I have spoken to some corporates that have struggled communicating with one pension scheme, and now they could potentially have to deal with a lot more up to hundreds. It might have the advantage of lessening the ill-effects of pension lifestyling, but then again, it means that there is more of an onus on the individual to choose a suitable investment strategy if they are outwith (it’s a legitimate word in Scotland, autocorrect - deal with it) the workplace “default”.
I was more enamoured with Steve Webb’s old policy of “pot follows member”, in which a workplace pension automatically followed an individual from job to job. Whilst Mr Hunt’s consultation could have the same outcome in theory, it seems a bit more challenging in practice.
We’ll see how it plays out.
If someone close to us dies - where to start?
Losing a loved one is an incredibly painful and stressful time. There is lots to think about; arranging the funeral, the long-term financial implications, and of course the profound sense of loss from the absence of someone dear to us.
Unfortunately, there can also be a phenomenal amount of administration to wade through. How many banks accounts did the person have, and where are they? What are the internet passwords? Who do I contact to assist with the life insurance? And that’s just the start. There will be things that pop out of the woodwork, continually demanding brain time at a point in your life when this is really the last thing you want to be doing. Not pleasant.
It won’t solve all the issues but having a detailed record of “What I have and where it is”, might help those that are left behind. As a quick anecdotal reference my situation isn’t overly complex, but I know without such a document my family would have a heck of a time trying to work everything out.
So, here it is. Completely free to use for whomever may get some value from it. The PDF form part might be a little glitchy, so it might be best to print this out - whatever works for you.
Business update - Five months in
Purpose Financial Planning has been up and running for five months, by the time you read this. Cue the usual cliche about time flying by, but it really has. Loving every second.
Very kindly, clients and contacts often ask how business is going, how I’m enjoying working for myself, etc. So, I thought it’d be useful to lift the curtain somewhat and provide a little more detail. Full transparency, as always.
The doors “officially opened” in July 2023, and at that point I had ten fantastic clients. You know who you are, and thank you again. Since then, the firm has grown to 17 ongoing clients, with more being onboarded each month. That’s pretty rapid growth for a small financial planning firm, and I am delighted with things so far.
The natural follow-on question is how many families could I or would I like to look after. The honest answer is I’m not sure how the business will develop, but the general consensus in the financial planning world is that a planner can look after around 90 families.
Property vs Pensions: Webinar
Property versus Pensions - which is best?
This is a topic that I speak to people about from time-to-time, so I thought it would be worthwhile opening a discussion up to a wider audience. I'm running a webinar looking at the pros and cons of property and pensions as a means of supporting us through our retirement.
If you’re a client of the firm, chances are we have discussed this before. Regardless, you might still find it interesting, and I’d love to have you along. It might be something for your children or friends who are convinced - there is so much of this on social media - that they need to “build a property portfolio”.
For wider connections of the firm, we’d love to have you and/or your clients attend.
If you’d like to register, you can do so here.
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