Henry Tapper

PASA’s thoughts on how TPR’s code of practice works for CDC PASA – Pensions Administration Standards Association CIC PASA has submitted its response to The Pensions Regulator’s consultation on Extending the Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Code o…

PASA's thoughts on how TPR's code of practice works for CDC henrytapper.com/2026/02/10/p... PASA's response focuses on the practical administration and operational considerations needed to support effective delivery of CDC schemes

Change of tack at BP – time for BP pensioners to know! Chris Johnston Assistant News Editor and City Bulletin Writer ‌ ‌ February 10 2026 Good morning and welcome to Tuesday We start today with BP, which has halted its share repurchase programme and pl…

Change of tack at BP - time for BP pensioners to know! henrytapper.com/2026/02/10/c... BP said the board had “decided to suspend the share buyback” and would now “fully allocate excess cash” to strengthen its balance sheet, in a move expected by analysts.

Rulers, Rules & Ruining Retirement – today’s Guiided Coffee morning Steven Goddard CEO Pension Playpen You are cordially invited to attend our next online Coffee Morning tomorrow. “The rule makers are ruining our retirements” was Tom McPhail&#821…

Rulers, Rules & Ruining Retirement - today's Guiided Coffee morning henrytapper.com/2026/02/10/r... We are delighted that Phil Hodges from Guiide will be joining us to discuss the Rulers and the rules governing retirement in the UK.

What will AI do to blogging? Or should the question be the other way round? Last week my blogs saw more reads of my posts than any week since 2009 when this blog started. I cannot say why but I can say that there was a lot of reading from the USA which looks like it wasn&#…

What will AI do to blogging? Or should the question be the other way round? henrytapper.com/2026/02/10/w... It is because so much of what I do- create ideas and commit them to words- is taken up by software that transforms what I wanted to say to how I want to say it.

Rulers, Rules & Ruining Retirement – tomorrow’s Guiided Coffee morning Steven Goddard CEO Pension Playpen You are cordially invited to attend our next online Coffee Morning tomorrow. “The rule makers are ruining our retirements” was Tom McPhail’s sli…

Rulers, Rules & Ruining Retirement - tomorrow's Guiided Coffee morning henrytapper.com/2026/02/09/r... Philip Hodges will be on Pension Play Pen tomorrow to discuss navigating forthcoming regulatory developments – support and protection for all savers.

People should be rewarded for paying to their pension when on Universal Credit Steve’s problem this week is about what personal pension contributions mean to your Universal Credit, (assuming you are getting UC and paying PP.) This is from the Daily Mail. Here’s th…

People should be rewarded for paying to their pension when on Universal Credit henrytapper.com/2026/02/09/p... "Whilst I’m pleased that DWP has accepted the mistake and that extra training is in place, I cannot help wondering how many other people have been fobbed off and perhaps simply given up"

Just- Defined Benefit Solutions – Andy Smith’s update for 2026 Just may not be in the bonanza for ever, but that does not mean they will suffer! Just’s story reminds me of the huge take on of DB transfer business in the later years of quantitative easing…

Just- Defined Benefit Solutions - Andy Smith's update for 2026 henrytapper.com/2026/02/09/j... I hope we  are moving into a new stage of the "endgame" when Just and their new insurer rivals are made to work harder for new business and DB pension trustees are more informed about the choices they have

Just, L&G, Aviva, USS and Hymans write to Reeves explaining how to finance UK growth Keating and Aubrey told us how gilts could not do the job. Last September Thomas Aubrey and Con Keating highlighted the inanity of the Government’s plan to finance with gilts the growth neede…

Just, L&G, Aviva, USS and Hymans write to Reeves explaining how to finance UK growth henrytapper.com/2026/02/09/j... Well done the insurers , a pension scheme and a consultancy for their letter and well done the FT for publishing the need for a financing rethink.

Robin Ellison speaks for me on the VFM “masterpiece of dross”. A couple of weeks back , Kim Gubler pointed out that a perfectly good system for measuring the value people get for their pension money exists. It is offered by AgeWage that allows people ca…

Robin Ellison speaks for me on the VFM "masterpiece of dross". henrytapper.com/2026/02/08/r... The Government has told us that we can expect to get (up to ) 60% more value from a CDC pension than the annuity from our pot. Where's the VFM?

The impact of Emma Rampton on Cambridge University’s Endowment. Emma Rampton became Registrary in 2017. The office of Registrary was created in 1506 and Emma Rampton was the 27th person – and first woman – to hold it. The Registrary is the University’s principa…

The impact of Emma Rampton on Cambridge University's Endowment. henrytapper.com/2026/02/08/t... On a like-for-like investment basis, the cumulative opportunity cost associated with above-inflation administrative spending is projected to be about £1.3 bn in real terms by July 2026.

China wants it – like California; let’s own our technology in our pensions! During the week, I had  lunch with Will Hutton at the RSA Coffee House. It was a strenuous meal where the calories absorbed were burned off in  our determination to out-gesticulate each othe…

China wants it - like California; let's own our technology in our pensions! henrytapper.com/2026/02/08/c... We have the capital locked up in our pensions to make our technology work for us and yet we let the technology leak out to America and soon to China. Hutton has other ideas!

Claire Altman of Standard Life – serious about VFM as delivering pensions! This week’s VFM podcast did not go as expected for Nico and Darren as it featured  Claire Altmann as Standard Life’s Managing Director: BPA & Individual Retirement  I have a very hi…

Claire Altman of Standard Life - serious about VFM as delivering pensions! henrytapper.com/2026/02/08/c... I am not entirely sure that Claire is happy about her role or her employer, there is a little of Clara still in her! If you want to hear the torture of her soul, here's the podcast!

BP does not stand for Broken Promises or Bad Pensions. I have been following the debates on DB pensions in the House of Lords and know that there is anger with failures of Pensions, to meet their promises when they have the means to do so. On Wednesday…

BP does not stand for Broken Promises or Bad Pensions. henrytapper.com/2026/02/07/b...
John speaks for BP pensioners but in a way for everyone who loses from the non payment of pension surpluses to those who most need the money.

Governing Administration in a Consolidated Market – KGC This is a most thought out post and article. It is the first in what we are promised is a series, I look forward. If this is what being part of IGG means for KGC Associates, then this consolidation…

Governing Administration in a Consolidated Market - KGC henrytapper.com/2026/02/07/g... How should trustees think about the stability of their own administrator when change elsewhere in the market can have indirect but material effects?

Why pensioners aren’t giving up work (or paying much tax) This is an extraordinary story about what is happening to people of my age (64). We aren’t giving up and we’re looking at double bubble fiscal fun when we reach our state pension age. W…

Why pensioners aren’t giving up work (or paying much tax) henrytapper.com/2026/02/07/w... This could be double bubble fun for pensioners , even if it’s fun deferred.

Andy Young and Sara Protheroe; pension’s top married couple! I was reading this morning the Hansard account of the debate in the Lords Grand Committee on the losses incurred on pensioners by legislation that has meant they have had no increases in their pre-…

Andy Young and Sara Protheroe; pension's top married couple! henrytapper.com/2026/02/07/a... I suspect what we have here is something of a record from a couple who have done more for those in PPF and FAS than any other!

Interesting stuff on USS - the Higher Education sector’s behemoth pension scheme.

Thanks to @henrytapper.bsky.social for collating and sharing.

LTAFs? “Do not be short oh investment trusts” says a shrewdy (or two)! Here’s the voice of a senior peer from the House of Lords. Here’s the voice of our stock market   Here’s one voice from the counties For me, the LTAF is a way to make a killi…

LTAFs? "Do not be short oh investment trusts" says a shrewdy (or two)! henrytapper.com/2026/02/06/l... The trade associations of the fund managers and insurers are happy to use the press to sing the virtues of LTAFs while investment companies/trusts continue to sit unloved

Dividends and “the return nobody got” – Paul McCaffrey The CFA has produced an excellent paper; you can download it here. Long-run stock returns look extraordinary, yet few investors became rich. This brief explains why dividend reinvestment assumption…

Dividends and "the return nobody got" - Paul McCaffrey henrytapper.com/2026/02/06/d... Long-run stock returns look extraordinary, yet few investors became rich. Dividend reinvestment assumptions overstate historical equity returns, the equity risk premium is “the return nobody got.”

USS pension performance under the Clacher and Keating microscope. Some unlucky stocks picked? Private – does that mean opaque rather than transparent? Is this delivering value for money? Con Keating doesn’t think so The rosy funding statements are bas…

USS pension performance under the Clacher and Keating microscope. henrytapper.com/2026/02/06/u... An underperfomer ; It is however good to see USS open and proving the sceptics 10 years ago, very wrong.

USS pension performance under the Clacher and Keating microscope. Some unlucky stocks picked? Private – does that mean opaque rather than transparent? Is this delivering value for money? Con Keating doesn’t think so The rosy funding statements are bas…

USS pension performance under the Clacher and Keating microscope. henrytapper.com/2026/02/06/u... An underperfomer ; It is however good to see USS open and proving the sceptics 10 years ago, very wrong.

LTAFs? “Do not be short oh investment trusts” says a shrewdy (or two)! Here’s the voice of a senior peer from the House of Lords. Here’s the voice of our stock market   Here’s one voice from the counties For me, the LTAF is a way to make a killi…

LTAFs? "Do not be short oh investment trusts" says a shrewdy (or two)! henrytapper.com/2026/02/06/l... That most trust run pensions are not investing in growth while commercial pensions are invested in LTAFs, tells me that Altmann and Bowles are right

Do we need a pot of £800K or a pension of £40k? The Times report research and the researchers debate whether retirement is realistic. The reality is that most people do retire and find a way, but it’s not always thanks to the financial ser…

Do we need a pot of £800K or a pension of £40k? henrytapper.com/2026/02/05/d... If you are unlucky enough to have no pension from DB plans and all you get as income is from DC plans, then the conversion of pots of money into income becomes the critical calculation.

Civil Service Pensions in MELTDOWN; lessons for the private sector. Yesterday I reported on Richard Smith’s complaint that some life companies write about people either having DC pots or DB pensions, something which is not the case as the dashboard will revea…

Civil Service Pensions in MELTDOWN; lessons for the private sector. henrytapper.com/2026/02/05/c... It is the payment of income as promised that we must focus on, anything less is considered “Meltdown” by readers of the popular press!

Civil Service Pensions in MELTDOWN; lessons for the private sector. Yesterday I reported on Richard Smith’s complaint that some life companies write about people either having DC pots or DB pensions, something which is not the case as the dashboard will revea…

Civil Service Pensions in MELTDOWN; lessons for the private sector. henrytapper.com/2026/02/05/c... It is the payment of income as promised that we must focus on, anything less is considered “Meltdown” by readers of the popular press!

Scottish Widows’ DC counter to the CDC challenge. There is no doubt that the Scottish Widows Master Trust is here to say. It will pick up the Lloyds Banking Group’s DC scheme (Your tomorrow) which will make the Master Trust a £1o bn scheme b…

Scottish Widows' DC counter to the CDC challenge. henrytapper.com/2026/02/05/s... Clearly, Scottish Widows have confidence in their members to take investment decisions. I am not so sure (at 64) that I could take decisions on how best to turn my pot to pension!

Want to be the next Pensions UK Chair? The Chair of Pensions UK, Emma Douglas is off to be Chair of the Pensions Regulator and you can’t do both. So Pensions UK needs a change of Chair and this blog is always willing to give Pensi…

Want to be the next Pensions UK Chair? henrytapper.com/2026/02/04/w... The Chair of @PensionsUK_ UK, Emma Douglas is off to be Chair of @TPRgovuk and you can’t do both. So Pensions UK needs a change of Chair and this blog is always willing to give Pensions UK a helping hand

Richard Smith asks Standard life about his age wage in retirement! Gen X get real. Richard Smith has made an important point. Many people build up DB pensions, many more build up DC pots and we all build up state pension. We need to understand how people think about all their ret…

Richard Smith asks Standard life about his age wage in retirement! Gen X get real. henrytapper.com/2026/02/04/r... Richard Smith has made an important point. Many people build up DB pensions, many more build up DC pots and we all build up state pension.

Are PuFINS for real? As real as most financial services! I like the idea of PuFIN but am not quite sure I’ve got this colourful bird. He’s standing on the rugged coast with Tower Bridge behind him and Windsor Castle sited between the Towers. …

Are PuFINS for real? As real as most financial services! henrytapper.com/2026/02/04/a... The PuFIN’s about as real as the AI artwork.Maybe its a metaphor for the reality of financial services

John Hamilton talks of the insurance of a pension invested for growth Here is the blog I wrote on the 24th of January a year ago. It contains the outline of the first and only time I’ve ever heard John Hamilton deliver a talk on pensions. It so influenced me la…

John Hamilton talks of the insurance of a pension invested for growth henrytapper.com/2026/02/03/j... Here's the blog I wrote on the 24th of January a year ago. It contains the outline of the first and only time I’ve ever heard John Hamilton deliver a talk on pensions. Today's a 2nd time