charges

Jonathan Stapleton asks if transparency could help schemes reduce fees

The government has grossly underestimated the impact on providers of the pension charge cap by about £800m, says Royal London.

Aegon UK has estimated the charge caps for auto-enrolment business will cost it between £20m to £25m a year, as it reported a 30% rise in pre-tax earnings for the second quarter.

The cost of implementing the 0.75% charge cap has already overshot expectations from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

All schemes with mixed charge structures or fees in excess of 0.75% will be included in the audit of legacy defined contribution (DC) schemes launched earlier this year.

Life and pensions underlying profits at Lloyds Banking Group were down 18% to £461m in the first half of the year, latest results show.

The charge cap on defined contribution (DC) default funds risks incentivising short-term trading, the Law Commission has warned.

Asset managers must reveal the full cost of management to investors, as concealed costs can account for up to 85% of a fund's total transaction fees, the Pensions Institute says.

Pension industry bodies have expressed "serious concern" over the timing of the defined contribution (DC) charge cap proposed by the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP).

Concerns over an auto-enrolment (AE) capacity crunch in early 2015 have been compounded by the announcements made in the Budget 2014, say consultants.