Pension access, 'safe' funds and financial education - here's our weekly heads-up of articles in the weekend newspapers that may have caught your clients' attention...
Savers seeking to keep early access to pension pots face 2023 deadline
Investors must act quickly to protect their pension rights, as government plans to raise the minimum access age have emerged, warns the Financial Times.
The government says it could raise the so-called ‘normal pension age' by 2028 to keep up to date with increasing life expectancy.
However, to support those who do not want to miss out, the government is giving savers scope to preserve the current national minimum pension age, but only if they transfer their pots to a scheme where the 55-pension age falls within the scheme's rules.
Investors do not have long, however, and only have until 2023 to transfer.
Safe funds have become filled with risky investments
Funds deemed to be ‘balanced' or ‘safe' have become riskier than many savers realise, reports The Telegraph.
Research by Tam Asset Management finds that almost two thirds of these funds hold more than 60% in shares, a third have more than 70% and some even hold 85%.
The firm also calculated that a portfolio with 70% in stocks lost more than a quarter of investors' money in the first three months of last year during volatile markets amid the pandemic.
"Simply looking at stocks versus bonds overlooks nuance," says Fidelity International's Tom Stevenson. "Bonds can be defensive, such as British government bonds, or riskier if they are issued by emerging markets, for example."
How to teach your bored teenager about investing
Glued to screens over long summer holidays, writes Moira O'Neill for the Financial Times, teenagers are likely to have come across a 'finfluencer' on social media offering questionable investment tips.
In this article she runs through some conversations she is planning to have with her own teen, setting out an agenda other parents can easily follow.
Those topics address the so-called 'finfluencers', cryptocurrency, sensible investing, and frugal living and financial independence.
Link to original article