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My car sharing companion read this week that 2 in 5 people are likely to live until they are 100. He initially thought this was great news – it seems like he can expect to live for 25 years longer than his parents did.

I set off to work today with a smile on my face, knowing that the lady of our household would discover a card on the mat and a present on the kitchen table from her (not so) secret admirer.

An important issue here and one that needs immediate thought if it applies to you!. From 6 April 2011 you are generally restricted to paying £50,000 in annual pension contributions, (Whether these are paid by you, your employer or a third party). This is substantially lower than the £255,000 annual allowance for this year which ends on 5 April 2011.

As you may remember, my car-sharing companion and I have been talking about annuities.

As we got into the car today, he told me that he had been thinking about annuities all day and wondering why on earth I didn’t think that the judgment of the European Court would result in a drastic reduction in annuity rates. I felt guilty about making somebody else think about annuities for a day, so I thought I ought to give him the facts.

Those attending the seminar left in the knowledge that pensions are about to become the stroppy teenager of financial services.

As I was listening to Brighton’s triumph over the mighty Dagenham and Redbridge yesterday, and celebrating an overdue return to the championship, it occurred to me how similar pensions and football are.

Over the last few weeks I have been presenting the annual review of the Spofforths pension scheme to its members. This is always interesting for me, as I get to meet people outside of the usual demographic range plus the Spofforths Financial Planning clients. True, there are plenty of accountants in their 50’s and above but there are also many in their 20’s and 30’s.

phone hacking? who cares! There are much more exciting things going on in the world of pensions. In the last week, the Finance Bill received Royal Assent and became the Finance Act.

I was delighted to welcome more than one hundred guests to Christ’s Hospital School on Wednesday, as they attended our free wealth management seminar. The event was a great success and we received positive feedback following the presentations from our wealth management team. The school was the perfect venue for the seminar and John Franklin, the Head Master, kindly gave us all a tour of its ancient chapel.