The tax year is over but the deadline did not pass without incident.
HM Revenue and Customs urged some people to delay benefits or transferring until it can fix incorrect legislation ahead of the abolition of the pension lifetime allowance on April 6 as Money Marketing reported last week.
It presents quite a list for advisers to grapple with.
scheme specific tax-free cash protection;
a transfer of a case with enhanced protection;
enhanced protection and primary protection cases with protected lump sum rights of more than £375,000;
the payment of a lump sum death benefit from funds that crystallised prior to 6 April 2024;
any transfer from drawdown to a QROPS;
any transfer to a QROPS which involves pre-April 2006 benefits.
Experts have decried the situation.
Nucleus’ Andrew Tully writes an analysis titled 'Making sense of the HMRC mess post LTA abolition', again in Money Marketing.
He writes: “Making such a major intervention at such a late stage demonstrates how poorly these changes have been implemented. And it puts schemes, advisers and, particularly, clients in a very difficult position.”
The following thinktank report provoked a lot of debate on social media among advisers.
The Resolution Foundation has suggested that ISAs are effectively only supporting the wealthy and are not addressing low savings levels among the general population as reported in FTAdviser.
It notes that in 2018-20, 54 per cent of working-age families in the top 10 per cent of the income distribution had an Isa, compared to less than 18 per cent in the bottom 10 per cent.
The report continues: "For this reason, we have previously made the case that Isas should at least be capped at £100,000. The tax revenue raised from such a policy could be spent on expanding Help to Save – a saving policy specifically targeted at low-income families."
New Model Adviser is very strong in its coverage of private equity and advice.
Its research finds that while PE-backed groups increased their adviser ranks by 814 in 2023, the pace of acquisitions is slowing, with 10% fewer deals.
Professional Adviser hones in on the fact that FOS expects to receive a relatively light number of complaints regarding British Steel transfers in the next financial year, though it does expect 12,800 pension and investment complaints overall.
