Financial Services Unplugged with Tom McPhail

How to make workplace pensions work better

Not one but two really knowledgeable and thoughtful individuals join me to reflect on workplace pension reforms: Philip Brown of the People's Pension and Nathan Long of Hargreaves Lansdown. 

Dashboards and small pots

Pension Dashboards are delayed, the government still doesn’t know what to do about small pots and people aren’t engaging with their pensions. Fintech and pensions expert Dave Henderson of Penny pensions and I discuss whether or not everything is fine…

Financial planning through the Budget pension changes

A follow up Budget episode, digging into some of the financial planning questions thrown up by Jeremy Hunt's changes with the help of Alice Guy from Interactive Investor

Budget pensions bombshell

Unpicking the Budget pensions announcements with Tom Selby from AJ Bell

Pension tax wars and retirement income reviews

Andrew Tully of Canada Life joins me to discuss the FCA's retirement income thematic review; the forthcoming Budget and what it might mean for pensions; and a bit of a reflection on what a Labour government could mean.

The UK Pensions Framework

The Pensions Policy Institute has produced a brilliant analysis of the UK's pensions system, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of dozens of underlying components, and the trade-offs across the competing high-level objectives.

Drawdown, risk adjusted returns and the FCA review

One of the few real product innovations post pension freedom is Just's Secure Lifetime Income. Peter Ellis talks to me about how it works and about the FCA's latest post-pension freedom regulatory review

Equity Release

Right at the end of 2022, I recorded this conversation with Jim Boyd, the CEO of the Equity Release Council. We talk about the role of housing wealth in later life, regulation, the state of the market and what needs to change.

Pension scams, fraud and transfer delays

Everyone in the industry wants to stamp out scams and fraud, however the delays in transferring customers' money are themselves costing everyone a lot of time and money. Phil Warner from Hargreaves Lansdown talks through the issues (NB apologies for the sub-optimal sound quality on this episode)

The John Greenwood episode

Corporate Adviser editor and award-winning journalist John Greenwood and I talk about some of the highlights of 2022, including the problem with net-zero; price caps and illiquid investments and consolidation. We also take a look at 2023, decumulation and whether early access to pensions is a good idea.