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2 minute readOctober 18, 202210:38 PM GMT+3Last Updated 21 hours ago

BT pensions scheme lost $12 bln in assets after UK 'mini-budget' -annual report
Reuters

U.K. pensions drama sparks call for rethink of £1.6 trillion market
Bloomberg


Bank_of_England_101722

Bloomberg

Pressure is growing for a sweeping rethink of the U.K.'s pension fund regulation after the sector's near-implosion wreaked havoc across financial markets and helped bring about a humiliating government retreat.

Pensions were caught on the hop by rapidly rising gilt rates after the government's mini-budget last month, forcing them into a wave of asset sales. the Bank of England stepped in to contain what it saw as "fire sale dynamics" — an emergency measure that's already prompting questions about why a huge but hitherto sleepy corner of the financial sector could spiral in this way.

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Monday he was unable to commit to raising state retirement payments in line with inflation in April as currently planned.

He was asked during a parliamentary debate to recommit to the triple lock, a government promise to raise publicly-funded pensions by the highest of earnings, inflation or 2.5%.

"I'm very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are and the importance of the triple lock ... but I'm not making any commitments on any individual policy areas," he said.

Not true , had you transferred your pension out and into a personal SIPP, holding cash ,then as far as I can see you would still have your £740,000.

My pension transfer value has plunged from £740k to £340k: What's happened, and is my early retirement dream over? Steve Webb replies
By STEVE WEBB FOR THIS IS MONEY
PUBLISHED: 07:23 BST, 17 October 2022 | UPDATED: 14:46 BST, 17 October 2022

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I've been paying into my company's pension scheme for nearly 28 years.

Our pension scheme has recently been taken over by a new external administration firm and since January, my pension transfer value has dropped by more than 50 per cent from £740,000 to £340,000.

I've asked the pension administrator for an explanation and they replied: 'Your pension's fine nothing to worry about'.

October 11, 2022 6:31 pm
Pension providers have seen a rush of people looking to cash in their pensions in the wake of more turmoil on the gilt market leading to people fearing for their savings.

Data from the HMRC showed that between Friday 1 April and Thursday 30 June 2022, £3.6bn was taken out of private pensions by 508,000 people, with an average amount of £7,000 – a 23 per cent increase compared to the same quarter in 2021. The Financial Conduct Authority has also found an 18 per cent increase in people accessing their pensions for the first time on the previous year, with just under 400,000 fully withdrawn.

Pension providers have not confirmed the numbers of people drawing money out recently, but a Scottish Widows customer told i that when they called their provider this week, they were told the firm had been overwhelmed with a massive flurry of people suddenly wanting to cash their pensions in.

I agree with this chap.

If pension managers gamble and fail, make them pay
Constant bailouts have allowed even run-of-the-mill pension funds have become addicted to risk, with inevitable results
ROSS CLARK

13 October 2022 • 1:52pm

Tonight’s evening news, interviews and reports on those who have seen the value of their private pension pots , disappear.
Reports of 15% and 20% falls just months prior to planned retirement.
These are the pour souls who were, advised to move funds into bonds in the last few years prior to retirement. Worse, for some it was done for them, without their knowledge.

The TV Interviewer and guest telling the audience not to panic, get advice from the same clowns that pushed them down the route to these losses. !!

£9,200 is the pot NOT the income per year.

Absolutely shocking

How much has my pension lost due to recent volatility?

Just over 750,000 Britons aged over 55 who are still working and have defined contribution workplace and personal pensions could have already seen huge falls in the value of their pensions.

Calculations by former pensions minister Steve Webb have found that about half that number - who have more than £43,000 in their pots - could have seen the value drop by at least £10,000 due to the recent market volatility.

Most of the drop in value can be put down to issues in the market of gilts - known as UK bonds – with many people soon to retire being heavily invested in gilts.

Mr Webb’s figures, reported in the i newspaper, also revealed that the average amount in a workplace defined contribution pension pot for employees soon to retire is £9,200.

As I have previously remarked on this thread my investing style is vastly different from that recommended by your average financial advisor. 70/30 equities/ bonds.
I go for a single stock, all in .
I am not a financial advisor and can not give advice to anyone.
I must say looking at recent pension events, , a few readers here, may wish they had never come across their financial advisor.

Moving on , today a public notice appeared that will I believe be beneficial to Triad Group PLC .

National Highways Limited
72222300
Information technology services
Location
UNITED KINGDOM
£1,000,000,000
Start Date
11/10/2022
18 Lots
119 Contractors Appointed

It’s a one billion pound , IT Framework agreement over 4 years with 118 other contractors appointed.

Triad Group PLC have been extremely successful this year winning places on some of the very largest frameworks issued by the Government.

For an SME with a market capitalisation of just £20M it’s nothing less than outstanding.

For those that don’t know , framework agreements only get you passed the gatekeeper, a select few get through the door. Each winning company then has to bid for work, (and win, )for a contract to be awarded.
The U.K. Government has written policies for ensuring SME ‘S get a much larger slice of the winning cake than in the past.
Triad is an SME.
The foundations are now in place for turnover to increase very substantially over the next few years, 50% of the risk ( getting on the required frameworks) is now 100% covered.

'Material risk' to UK financial stability with part of pension-linked market 'dysfunctional', Bank of England warns
The Threadneedle Street institution announces it is extending its intervention again by buying up index-linked gilts, a day after increasing the daily amount it can spend on long-dated gilts, which it is due to stop buying on Friday.

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business reporter
Tuesday 11 October 2022 16:41, UK

Iceland tops global pensions league, Britain slips -survey
Tue, 11th Oct 2022 05:01Thomson Reuters
LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Iceland offers the best pension provisions, followed by the Netherlands and Denmark while Britain slipped a spot to 10th place in the world ranking, an annual survey showed on Tuesday.

Iceland scored top marks overall for the second year running for the level of private and public sector pension benefits available, the sustainability of the system to last decades into the future and the quality of its governance, according to the survey by pensions consultants Mercer.

Britain, which has been in the eye of a pensions storm in recent weeks as a sharp rise in gilts left the sector over-exposed to market moves, came in below a number of European countries as well as below Australia and Singapore.

However, the UK scored more highly than 20th-ranked the United States, particularly over the adequacy of retirement provision and the integrity of the system.

Britain was also higher than Germany, France and Italy, which scored poorly on the sustainability of their provisions and came in at 17th, 22nd and 32nd place respectively, while Canada slipped to 13th place from 12th last year.

I have tried for the life of me , to find a monthly index of the average private pension pot.
Even if just one large pension provider provided the information, I would be extremely interested.
Perhaps an industry expert here could guide me

Thanks in advance

“We’re currently in a bear market (a period of economic decline). The good news is global markets have recovered from every bear market in history, without exception”

However they forget to mention it can take decades to get back to previous highs.

Shocking to see , its standard practice of loading your pension with dreadfully performing positions.

Many must be regretting they ever let’s these fools near their hard earned pension contributions.

https://www.pensionbee.com/blog/2022/october/what-happened-to-pensions-in-september-2022

The above rare private pension pots.

These will have slumped this year, as both bonds and equities have fallen sharply

Average pension pots [UK]:
Ages 16-24: £2,700
Ages 25-34: £9,500
Ages 35-44: £30,600
Ages 45-54: £81,200
Ages 55-64: £189,700
Ages 65-74: £190,000
Ages 75+: £90,300
Thoughts:
The average is represented here (and throughout this post) using the median. Using the 35-44 age group as an example, if you lined up all the pension pots for people aged 35-44 in the UK from the smallest to the largest, the middle pot would be worth of £30,600. This is the median.
This means if you’re aged 35-44 and have a pension pot above £30,600, that’s larger than 50% of your age group.
I was surprised at how low those numbers are. Given the conventional wisdom is that you can safely withdraw 3%-4% of your portfolio per year in retirement, a pot of £190k gives you somewhere between £6k and £8k per year of withdrawals. That’s not much at all if you’re relying solely on your pension to fund retirement. Hopefully those with £190k in their pension pots will also have savings in their ISAs, or other investments outside their pension wrapper (like property).
These averages are only looking at people who already contribute to a pension. There are plenty of people who don’t contribute to any pension at all:

More pension horror’s

Specifically, The FT notes that Schroders said it will make some redemptions originally due on Monday as late as July next year (the £2.7bn UK Real Estate fund), while Columbia Threadneedle said volatile market conditions had forced it to switch from daily to monthly payouts (the £2.3bn Pooled Property fund). At the same time, BlackRock also imposed new restrictions on withdrawals (the £3.5bn UK Property fund).

So that's £8.5bn of assets now tied up.

The NAVs of these funds has yet to really implode (that's the point) but that suggests the true 'price' is well below current levels (as liquidity risk premia strike).

As The FT notes, UK pension funds have been cutting real estate holdings for several months as rising interest rates and slowing activity have weighed on the property market. Tumbling prices of UK government debt have also increased the proportion of funds’ portfolios in real estate, prompting some to reduce their exposure.