AI wields enormous promise, but it’s important to identify weak spots in skills and processes and adjust accordingly. The excitement and hype over AI has reached a fever pitch. Executive leaders are under pressure from boards, shareholders and other stakeholders to put it into action and identify the opportunities and efficiencies. Insurance is no exception, and we can already envisage vast swathes of possibilities to re-engineer processes and create economies of scale.
A recent Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) roundtable of industry professionals has highlighted a fundamental shift in pension scheme decision-making amidst £160bn in aggregate surpluses and evolving regulatory options.
As the U.K. experiences its fourth heatwave of the year following record June temperatures, and the U.K. Government invests in wildfire resilience, new analysis from LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, has revealed the top five urban locations where wildfire detections were recorded within 5km of city limits in 2025.
Pension Lab has demonstrated that open standards transfer technology can also support the validation of and responses to Letters of Authority.The approach uses infrastructure already supporting pension, SIPP and ISA transfers, rather than requiring providers to build a new system or join another network.Open standards transfer tech is currently used by more than 150 financial institutions.
Three in five (60%) are either incorrect or unsure whether pension providers or advisers can cold call about pension opportunities. Two in five (40%) believe you can withdraw money from your pension at any age or said they did not know. One in five (20%) say a professional-looking website and positive online reviews are reliable indicators that a pension opportunity is genuine, while 20% are unsure. Standard Life highlights how scammers exploit uncertainty around pensions and urges savers to look beyond polished websites, online reviews and social media adverts
As trustees, over the past few years you will have heavily relied on your administrator to help prepare your scheme for connection to pensions dashboards. They will know the dashboards regulations and Pensions Dashboards Programme’s standards inside out, be able to tell you the difference between Find and Value data and what a PeI is, and explain how they are connecting your members’ data to dashboards. (And if they haven’t, here’s a glossary of dashboards terms!)
The Upper Tribunal upheld the FCA's decision to ban Richard Fenech and Heather Dunne from working in financial services. The Tribunal agreed that both acted dishonestly by providing a backdated appointed representative agreement to the FCA.
Pet insurance prices continued to fall during the second quarter of 2026, although a sharp rebound in June suggests the sustained downward trend may be starting to lose momentum, according to the latest Pet Insurance Pricing Index from Defaqto’s Market Pricing Business.
Budget speculation season has started after Chancellor John Healey last week announced that he will hold his inaugural Budget on 28 October 2026. AJ Bell has warned that speculation around pension tax relief and tax-free cash can force people into making expensive mistakes. Seven sure-fire steps you can take ahead of the Budget – with no regrets
Our cover story is from long time contributor to the magazine Dale Critchley from Aviva who examines how you can insure your health, insure your home and car and even your life but how can you insure an income in retirement. We also have Mark Francis from the FCA and Simon Nixon from the PRA on increasing resilience across an interlinked financial system. Plus, PMI members Joe Moore and Julia Yates discussing Virgin Media -what now for pension schemes.
Small defined benefit pension schemes are continuing to benefit from favourable conditions in the bulk annuity market, with well-prepared schemes increasingly able to secure competitive buy-in transactions, according to Quantum Advisory.
New research shows over a fifth (22%) of adults have less confidence in pensions due to the upcoming pensions IHT change. However, official figures show around 7% of estates are expected to be financially affected in the first year of the change. Overestimation of future IHT liabilities poses risk to retirement income: individuals in their mid-20s could lose out on £5,014 at retirement from pausing pension contributions for just one year – rising to £24,715 for a 5-year contribution break.
Regular reviewing of pensions has risen from 38% in 2024 to 45% in 2026, while the proportion who never review their pension fell from 21% to 11% overall, according to new member research from TPT. Active members were also more likely to change their target retirement age, rising from 11% to 16%, and to look into investments or investment choices, increasing from 16% to 24%. However, among members aged 50+, 47% did not know whether they planned to take a lump sum. Among those not taking all their pension in one go, just over half, 52%, were uncertain what they would do with the remainder.
Insurance companies still struggle to unlock value from unstructured data, especially customer conversations. In this Swiss Re expert insight, Marco Spagnuolo, Head Conversational AI Solution, explains how AI-powered Conversation Intelligence transforms call centre audio into structured data. This allows insurers to increase operational productivity, improve customer experience, and strengthen risk management by identifying patterns, monitoring complaints, and detecting potential fraud. AI is already changing how insurers turn everyday interactions into actionable risk insights.
Private pension statistics from HM Revenue & Customs last week showed that both the number of charges against the pensions annual allowance (AA) and the value of contributions in excess of the AA, reported via self-assessment (SA), increased significantly between 2023/24 and 2024/25:
New figures from the ABI’s latest Property Insurance Tracker show home insurers paid out £72 million for domestic subsidence claims during the second quarter of 2026, with the average subsidence claim reaching a record £20,000. The average payout is more than £2,000 higher than in the same period last year, highlighting both the growing cost of subsidence and the vital protection insurance provides for homeowners.
Wealth management is becoming increasingly institutionalised. We examine the key trends driving this shift and what it means for firms and clients. Wealth management has always sat apart from other parts of financial services. Pension schemes exist for one main reason: to provide income in retirement. Insurance transfers risk. Asset management focuses on generating returns for a given level of risk. Wealth management, by contrast, has never had a single job.
Nearly half of pensions professionals expect dashboards to be used primarily at key life moments such as retirement or job changes, according to new polling from WTW. The findings point to a decisive shift away from continuous engagement towards more targeted, event-driven use.
Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor, commented “US markets ended a rollercoaster month on a high, as investors looked through rising bond yields and persistent AI spending concerns.
Aviva has completed a £300 million bulk purchase annuity buy-in with the Trustee of Elementis Group Pension Scheme, securing the benefits of 4,500 members. The transaction covers defined benefit liabilities and enables a subset of members to access additional voluntary contributions as a primary source of tax-free cash through Aviva’s integrated DB&C Master Trust solution.
The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) is delighted to announce the launch of the latest edition of the UK Pensions Primer 2026/27 – our comprehensive annual guide to the UK pensions system.
HMRC's latest Inheritance Tax liabilities statistics show that 4.72% of UK deaths resulted in an Inheritance Tax (IHT) charge in 2023/24. It marks an increase compared with 4.62% in 2022/23.
Applications to The Pensions Regulator for multi-employer Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension schemes open today, marking an important milestone in the development of CDC pensions and the next stage in their availability across the UK pensions market.