Firstly and most important, we hope you’re safe and well. Your mind may be racing with all the things that need rearranging, postponing, cancelling, how to stay afloat financially and keep friends and family safe. So there has never been a more important time to take control of your finances. As I’m sure you are well aware, […]

New data from the Department for Work and Pensions shows a sharp dip in the average weekly income from occupational pensions – down to £181 in 2018-19 from £199 in 2016-17 – for those who have reached State Pension Age (SPA). The fall in part reflects the steadily reducing numbers of people retiring with defined […]

Aviva has called on the Government to take a more flexible approach to the State Pension – ensuring that more people will have enough to retire on while encouraging some people to remain in the workforce for longer. They say that 4.5 million current mid-life employees may not have enough money to retire when they […]

If you are contemplating continuing to pay a mortgage into retirement, or to borrow money against your property and only pay interest payments, there’s some good news from Moneyfacts.co.uk: the number of products available in the last year has almost doubled – from 38 to 74. The other positive news is that the increased competition […]

The Association of British Insurers has issued a warning that the average rates at which people are withdrawing money from their pension could see people running out of money in retirement if they do not have other sources of income. In a wide-ranging report to mark five years since the introduction of pension freedoms, they […]

Equity release has long been a fallback for “asset rich, cash poor” pensioners, and the first nine months of 2019 saw £2.8bn borrowed in this way against the value of people’s homes – a record. But while they are popular, do they actually represent good value? And are they always the best option? New analysis […]

Sailing comfortably towards early retirement? Unfortunately, the journey may not necessarily be as smooth as you might wish – if statistics are anything to go by. New research by Just Group shows that early retirees are three times more likely to be forced to give up work than choose to – and only one in […]

A new type of pension is on the cards for UK savers which, if it passes through the parliamentary process, could offer something of a “half way house” between defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pensions. The potential advantage of the proposed Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) schemes is that they will be more affordable […]

Financial security in later life is not what it was… according to new research, more than a third (35%) of the UK, over the age of 55-years-old are living beyond their means.  Equity release provider more2life, which commissioned the research, say many respondents blamed rising costs of living them going into debt, leading to 68% of those […]

University researchers are warning that the UK Government’s Pension Wise website is negatively influencing savers’ decisions – encouraging them to abandon long-term financial security and cashing out lumps sums that they should be conserving for their retirement. The dire warning comes from academics at the University of Scotland, whose study with over 2,000 participants has […]