Brexit Minister Provides Assurances of “Cooler Heads”

Official figures have revealed that pension funds have plummeted a further £25 million into the red. The fall in bond yields – on which pension funds rely – has increased the pressure on the pots available to support final salary scheme pay-outs. At the end of May, the pension backstop PPF (Pension Protection Fund) revealed that the roughly five and a half thousand pension schemes it monitors have a combined deficit of nearly £295 billion. This is almost £25.5 billion worse than a month earlier.

Fears for the robustness of pension pots have been highlighted by the widely reported BHS deficit.  They come as a separate study reveals some of Britain’s biggest companies are paying shareholders a dividend bonanza despite huge deficits of their own. The Pensions Regulator have issued a similar warning in the past, saying: ‘It is important that employers treat their pension scheme fairly. We expect trustees to question employers’ dividend policies where debt recovery contributions are constrained.’ 

You may have seen emails alerting you to a new fraud specific to the financial services advice industry. We are not aware of any of our clients having been targeted in the way described below, but it is our responsibility at Blacktower to do everything we can to educate our clients about these scams to avoid any harm coming to them.

The fraudsters claim to be from the Financial Conduct Authority or local law enforcement and are targeting clients of investment management firms. They are advising clients that the investment manager, adviser or firm is under investigation. The fraudster specifically asks the client not to speak to their investment manager, adviser or firm, or even close connections, claiming this would be considered tipping off. The client is then advised to encash their portfolio and move the cash to the client’s bank account. Once this is done, the fraudster then ‘recommends’ an investment which is actually a scam.