The Personal Finance Society’s pro-bono initiative called Forces MoneyPlan has delivered 656 guidance sessions to support of Armed Forces personnel and veterans.

Entries are open for the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and the Personal Finance Society (PFS) Apprenticeship Awards, the annual celebration of apprentices across insurance and financial services.

In this regular column PFS director of policy Dr Matthew Connell looks at a pensions wrangle which may cause some pain.

The New Year began with painful headlines about thousands of members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme who have been forced to put divorce proceedings on hold – sometimes for over a year – because of an administrative backlog in calculations to determine the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) of their pension.

The delays were triggered by a judgement in 2018 on discrimination against younger members of public service pension schemes which required a new approach to calculations.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, it is impossible not to make comparisons with the standards in retail investment. Here, the Consumer Duty demands that standards of ‘consumer support’ must be high enough that ‘sludge practices’, such as delays to administrative processes, cannot be allowed to cause consumer harm.

In 2021, as the Consumer Duty was being introduced, the Personal Finance Society argued that: "FCA rules place some requirements on advisers that have no corresponding requirements for occupational pension schemes. We understand that the FCA cannot apply its Consumer Duty to pension schemes and other organisations that are outside its remit, however we think that the regulatory community, led by HM Treasury, should be taking action to deliver good outcomes for consumers and we do not think it is adequate that the regulators continue to allow poor outcomes to persist because issues have “fallen between the cracks” in the regulatory patchwork."

For the public, a pension is a pension. If one pension scheme fails to meet fundamental standards in one part of the sector, public confidence in all pension provision will suffer.

• This column first appeared in Financial Planning Today magazine, Jan-Feb 2025 edition. Matthew's column appears in each issue of the magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine by registering for this website and then checking subscription options in 'My Account.'

Dr Matthew Connell is director of policy and public affairs for the Personal Finance Society.

https://www.thepfs.org/

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has appointed two new executive directors who will take up their roles in early March.

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has published a new good practice guide for advisers about economic abuse and life insurance.

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has launched a programme of roadshows to be held across 24 locations in 2025.

Joshua Anderson of Fidenti Wealth of Sandbach in Cheshire has been named Financial Adviser Apprentice of the Year in the CII/PFS latest annual Financial Planning apprenticeship awards.

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has added a new guide on how firms can focus on delivering consumer outcomes in Financial Planning to its PFS Power website.

PFS members have sensationally rejected two key motions at the AGM in Manchester in a serious blow for the board.

The PFS is to launch a major consultation exercise with members after they unexpectedly rejected two key motions at the AGM in Manchester yesterday.

One of the leading PFS rebels, Alasdair Walker of the OurPFS campaign group, has welcomed the "clear message" the AGM protest vote yesterday has delivered to the PFS and parent body the CII and said the future for the PFS now looks "more positive."

Personal Finance Society interim chief executive Don MacIntyre has stepped down from his role after more than two years, during which time he faced a challenging time as head of the organisation.

More than 160 Financial Planners and Paraplanners attended the annual Personal Finance Society’s Graduation Ceremony held in London recently.

Michael Colyer, principal of SJP practice Colyer Associates in Yorkshire, has won the prestigious Chartered Financial Planner of the Year Award.

More than 3,800 young people have benefited from insurance and Financial Planning virtual work experience programme during the first year of its operation.

More than 200 Financial Planners achieved Chartered status last year, taking the total number of Chartered Financial Planners to 8,159.

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has appointed Carla Brown as the professional body’s new president.

The Personal Finance Society is to launch a new podcast mini-series to open up the conversation about how to succeed as a female adviser.

The Personal Finance Society and parent body, the Chartered Insurance Institute, have warned that they will take action if necessary after a number of "upsetting" incidents of online harassment.

The Personal Finance Society has appointed experienced financial services CEO Piers White as its first independent chair, a new role created by the organisation following its internal governance review completed last year.