The pensions industry in the UK is the second largest in the world after the US, with assets totalling over £260bn in personal pensions. Introduced in the early 1990’s the Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) market has grown year on year so that there are now over 500,000 plans in force. On going annual growth is predicted at a conservative rate of around 20%.
Growth of the SIPP market
July 21st, 2010Imago administration service proves key to SIPP success
June 30th, 2010Hargreave Hale’s selection of Dunstan Thomas Imago administration service proves key to SIPP success for the stockbroker
Leading stockbroker and investment manager Hargreave Hale Limited has attributed the rapid entry and success of its SIPP, launched in April 2009, in part to its decision to strategically outsource SIPP administration to pensions administrator Dunstan Thomas.
Spring Survey 2010
April 27th, 2010Over a quarter of pensions operators (27%) declared that the appropriate communication of information to policyholders in pre-, at- and post-retirement phases, was the sole responsibility of the adviser, effectively washing their hands of this communication.
AMPS and Illustrations
April 20th, 2010At last weeks AMPS open meeting at the IOD, we were treated to a number of excellent sessions on AMPS activities, from lobbying the government on tax relief to clarifying the regulators position on disclosure.
Uncertainty over future tax regime is single largest concern for pensions providers
April 16th, 2010Sixty one per cent of pensions providers questioned in a recent survey, commissioned by Dunstan Thomas, think that the uncertainty around the future taxation regime for pensions savings will have a much more significant impact on the pensions market in the next three years than any other macro development in the industry.
Only 31% of providers saw Retail Distribution Review (RDR) as the largest concern over the next three years, while NEST was the primary concern for just 4%, which infers that the industry is not expecting NEST to be effective.
Dunstan Thomas Imago Front Office offers asset level projections in Version 4
April 7th, 2010Dunstan Thomas, the pensions & investment administration software provider, is unveiling a new version of its Imago Front Office (Version 4) today which provides illustrations based on projections of the performance characteristics of the policyholder’s actual mix of holdings in specific asset classes products. Dunstan Thomas has enhanced its flagship front office offering, Imago, to reflect the growing need for more real world, granular, asset-level projections for pensions or and other fund product wrappers.
Invesment Administration and Imago as an OEM provider
April 2nd, 2010We are toying with the idea of positioning Imago as an OEM product for Investment Administration platforms to adopt. This will allow them to better penetrate their core broker markets whilst providing a single branded proposition for their clients. I would be happy to have a powered by Imago as a comment in the vendors literature.
Variable growth rates
March 20th, 2010We are really pleased to be able to talk about the forthcoming release of Imago Front Office Version 4. This version incorporates asset level customised growth rates, we have mentioned in previous newsletters. Some of our clients have been very enthusiastic about this development, others have been less interested. For Dunstan Thomas, this development represents a shift in Imago Front Office that will enable us to create much more sophisticated modelling capabilities. I am looking forward to talking through some further enhancements to Front Office in forthcoming newsletters.
What is RIY Plus ?
February 19th, 2010The Key to adviser business evolution and transformation
The Forces of Change
Whilst last decade has seen massive new developments in the financial services market place, the proposed changes brought about by The Retail Distribution Review will speed up the process of change from transaction and commission based to service and fee based (particularly recurring revenue dominated) adviser businesses. In the process, new providers such as wrap platforms have sprung up and experienced strong support and growth from forward thinking advisers even during severe market downturns whilst traditional providers have seen their businesses shrink as they struggle to keep up in the product development race and with the improved service standards now routinely expected.
2010 Survey
February 15th, 2010Over the past six years, we have conducted industry surveys every year, these surveys provide content or industry comment in the press and a booklet that is produced in the middle of the year. The surveys get issued to providers as well as advisers. This provides an interesting comparison of often contrasting views. Last year we did a survey on asset migration and wrap platforms.
This year the topic for the surveys covers aspects around communications to clients issues around the pensions thematic review, opinions on issues such as regulation and Solvency II. If you receive a survey from us, please do have a look at the questions and provide response to us. The more opinions we get the better the quality of the response.
Drop me a line in this blog if you would like us to followup any burning issues on your mind. cread@dthomas.co.uk
