The FTSE 100 fell below 5,000 in midday trade Friday as fears about the sovereign debt crisis and stricter financial regulations persist.

Lib Dem Steve Webb's appointment as pensions minister has raised fears his party's stance on higher rate tax relief on pensions could see the benefit scrapped.

Capital Gains Tax is set to rise on so called 'non-business' assets under the new coalition government to help reduce income tax for low earners.

Royal London new life and pensions business increased by more than 50% in Q1 this year, led by a strong performance from its pensions arm Scottish Life.

More than a quarter of providers believe they have no duty to tell customers about their retirement options, because the sole responsibility rests with advisers, research suggests.

The chief executives of 2plan Wealth Management and Tenet Group are among the senior figures at five major financial advice firms to attack the Liberal Democrats' pension plans.

The Tories have pledged to raise the the secondary threshold at which employers start paying National Insurance by £21 a week, countering what it calls Labour's "job tax" of a 1% NI increase.

Ongoing Financial Services Authority investigations into poor pension switching advice are expected to result in firms paying out more than £150m in redress to customers.

Almost a fifth (18%) of people retiring in 2010 expect to receive less than £10,000 a year from their pensions and investments, as expected incomes drop for the third year runnning, research suggests.