Just before Christmas, the government renewed its commitment to launching a pensions dashboard. After some uncertainty about whether the project would get the green light, the feasibility study and industry consultation published by the DWP received a warm welcome from…
Knapton Wright is a social media marketing consultancy in Lincolnshire formed by Alex and Louise Wright in 2014. It evolved over the past four years into a creative marketing agency, working with SMEs locally, regionally and nationally, with a handful…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. …
As a business owner, you’re no doubt aware that low employee productivity levels, absenteeism and high attrition rates have a direct effect on your company’s bottom line. And if you have a relatively high rate of attrition or underproductivity at…
How often do we read about futurologists, economists, or even weather forecasters who got their predictions wrong? They tend to be forgotten. There is always an exception, for instance Michael Fish who, on the evening of 15th October 1987, calmly…
In April, auto enrolment minimum contributions increased from 2% of qualifying earnings to 5% as part of the phased roll out of the policy. For auto enrolled savers paying in the minimum each month, this meant that their contributions tripled…
When it comes to saving for retirement, it’s very easy to put it off. After all, there’s plenty of time, right? The simple truth is, the earlier you start saving for retirement the better as your money has more time…
Data published by The Pensions Regulator has shown that almost 10 million people have been auto enrolled since the scheme began in 2012. But, despite this encouraging headline figure, over nine million people have been excluded. This figure has risen…
When NOW: Pensions entered the UK market in 2011 we spent a lot of time thinking about how to structure our member charges so that they are simple, transparent and above all equitable. Most pension providers charge a flat annual…
Troy Clutterbuck, CEO, NOW: Pensions Earlier this month the Office for National Statistics published its annual Occupational Pension Schemes Survey. The good news is that the figures prove that auto enrolment is delivering on its promise of getting more people…
Over the winter, all master trusts who wish to continue operating in the UK are going to be submitting applications to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) for authorisation. This new regulatory regime is something NOW: Pensions has long campaigned for and…
NOW: Pensions Assets under management have just burst through the £750 million mark. The next milestone will be the beautifully rounded £1 billion. It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating reaching £100 million, although that was over three years…
Earlier this week PensionBee published its “Robin Hood Index” which suggested that NOW: Pensions was one of the most expensive pension providers. The calculations they cited are inaccurate and misleading as they are based on 92 people with very small…
The news reported in The Times that ministers are thinking of scrapping the pensions dashboard was met with collective horror by the pensions industry, consumer groups and savers. A petition urging the government to stick to its promise of launching…
In life, choice is generally considered a good thing. But, when it comes to the auto enrolment market, offering investment choice can end up adding no value and driving up cost for members. Auto enrolled savers are, by their very…
We look at what the potential retirement savings of an England fan versus an England footballer. An employee aged 22, earning an average £28,500 a year who started their workplace pension via auto enrolment should expect to accrue a retirement…
Knowing how much you need to set aside for your retirement is far from simple and new research from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has revealed that 80% of people aren’t confident they are saving enough. While a…
At NOW: Pensions we’re surrounded by green – it’s a core part of our brand chosen to reflect the fact that we offer something refreshingly different in the pensions world. But, when it comes to our investment strategy, we are…
Earlier this week, The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) published a report on workplace pension participation and savings trends. Perhaps not the most scintillating read you might think. But, what it proved was that auto enrolment is working in reversing…
When it comes to auto enrolment, there are a number of quirks in the legislation. One of these is the fact that auto enrolment minimum contributions aren’t based on every pound of earnings. This means that while you might think…
The investment world seems to have its own confusing language, and the dictionary just gets heavier every year. While Diversified Growth Funds have been around for a few decades now, there is still confusion over what they are and what…
One of the perks of saving into a pension is tax relief – extra money that Government pay into your pension. But, as a result of a wrinkle in the way tax relief is collected, some lower earners are missing…
Thanks to gender pay gap reporting, the disparity between men and women’s pay has been subject to intense scrutiny in recent months. But, the implications of this persistent income inequality on pension saving is often overlooked. When we examined our…
If you are one of the 5.6 million people across the country that currently pay the minimum into your workplace pension, from today a little more is going to be set aside each month for your future. On the infographic…
Auto enrolment is going well but British businesses are braced for change. Research we recently carried out with nearly 700 firms showed that a large proportion expect the government to make changes to the policy in the future. In many…
Auto enrolment minimum contributions will soon be rising. While this marks a milestone in the policy and is no doubt causing sleepless nights for the DWP, our research shows that two thirds of auto enrolled savers are blissfully unaware of…
To quote Frank Sinatra, “When I was 17 it was a very good year”. Frank had another very good year four years after that, and then another 14 years later. If we should take any lessons from the song, it’s…
The DWP’s long awaited review of auto enrolment finally landed on doormats a week before Christmas. For savers, and would-be savers, it bought some welcome Christmas cheer. The two headline grabbing announcements were that auto enrolment would be extended to…
Charities, just like any other UK business, are legally obliged to automatically enrol their eligible workers into a workplace pension. Exactly the same rules apply. But, charities and not-for-profits may face very different challenges to other organisations and for some,…
Here’s a question to test the deeper recesses of your memory. Can you recall how many television sets you have owned? And where you bought them from, and what you paid? In my case it’s quite a lot. I’ve found…
