Avid readers of Professional Pensions may have seen an ariticle in the 6th September edition regarding the case of Waddy v Foster Wheeler (yes, THAT Foster Wheeler – just can’t seem to keep out of the pension press can it??). I was asked to comment on the case just as I was rising from a Magistrates’ court sitting so I’m not sure my thoughts were fully cogent at the time!!
Posts under ‘Miscellaneous’
The Untouchables…
In an earlier life I was the Legal Director of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority, the predecessor body to the current Pension Regulator. One of the issues which took up a considerable amount of management and investigatory time concerned a scam called ‘Pension Liberation’. It worked like this.
And the winner is…no one
Once again Europe has spoken and this time it’s the women who will pay – well sort of. The latest diktat from the ECJ has declared that it will no longer be legal for insurance companies to use sex based factors when pricing products whether that be car insurance, life insurance or (and this is the pension bit folks) annuities. I can hear my actuarial friends and colleagues sobbing into their modelling spreadsheets even as I type!
Leave them kids alone…
Bad news story of the week is the proposal leaked by the Daily Telegraph today (24 September) that the Pensions and PPF Ombudsman Service is to be merged with the Pension Regulator. As a consequence, the Pensions Advisory Service is to be abolished. This is a seriously bad idea for a number of reasons. Here are just a few.
1. tPR is very nearly unfit for purpose. It makes orders such as Financial Support Directions on Lehman Bros subsidiaries that cannot be enforced in all likelihood. It is seemingly unable to attract and recruit a new Chief Executive or Chairman. It is well past it’s ‘use by’ date and needs a radical rethink.
Summertime Blues
Just a short one this week in that I was interviewed by Lexis/Nexis the legal database, for commentary on St Vince of Cable’s plan to simplify legislation by ensuring a One In One Out approach. Here’s a link to the article. Call me an old cynic if you like but sometimes a glass half empty is exactly that. I’m off on my hols now for a couple of weeks. Lying on a beach in the Caribbean with a good friend, good food and a tall glass of something naughty. Now that glass will certainly be half full! See you in September.
Baby Barista (and it’s not coffee)
A slight departure today from the usual pension stuff to do a bit of unashamed advertising for an extremely funny book!!
Anyone who might have been avid followers of Baby Barista in the Times before it hid behind its paywall, may be interested to know that advance copies of “Law and Disorder: Confessions of Pupil Barrister” have just arrived.
Jennie advises large multi-employer schemes as well as smaller single employer arrangements and has wide experience of both Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit schemes. Jennie qualified in 1986 originally as a criminal prosecutor. She sits as a Magistrate in her local justice area and is an Approved Chairman and Deputy Chair of the Bench Training and Development Committee. Jennie was formerly Legal Director of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority. When her busy practice allows, Jennie likes to indulge her passion for travelling. To consult Jennie on any corporate Pensions matter, please call her on +44 (0)20 7749 2700 or send her an email by clicking below: