Full coverage: Pensions

Directing pension savings towards ESG investment in Ireland is no mean feat, but there is now a widely shared expectation that Joe Biden’s election will make it more mainstream – and more profitable.

Irish Life’s pensions business, comprised of corporate and retail pensions, is the biggest in Ireland with a 36 per cent market share. An analysis of its funds, with a total of €21 billion in assets, shows consistent underperformance against benchmarks.

The sprawling case into the disappearance of a multi-million pension fund has raised a far-reaching question: what should a court do when a party ordered to produce documents is unable to do so because of an IT meltdown?

From offshore schemes to unregulated funds, financial advisers are always looking for a new scheme to peddle. Given some of the products on offer, it is hard not to see this as a race between the Central Bank and a series of blowouts in the marketplace.

Despite various official investigations and Revenue warnings, the quantum of pension funds being transferred overseas peaked last year. Most went to tax-efficient structures in Malta.

An Irish businessman challenged an assessment by the Revenue Commissioners on a hefty pension distribution, claiming that he was living in Malta and had no home available to him in Ireland.