Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done before the company can say that the past is firmly behind it.On paper, HHG does not, in fact, look like a bad investment. The fund management group Henderson is profitable, and is restructuring to make it even more so. With a market cap of more than £1bn, it is one of the largest companies in the FTSE 250, yet most people have probably still not heard of it. HHG is one of the sleeping giants of the UK financial services industry. Born out of a demerger from AMP, the troubled Australian insurer, at the end of last year, it has been keeping a low profile ever since, occupying itself principally with extinguishing the many fires that are still blazing from its bad old days as part of the larger group.What's left now is a life book which is struggling to lay its hands on enough capital to satisfy the regulator, a fund manager whose brand has been cannibalised over the past few years, and a financial adviser that is being chased by its clients for alleged mis- selling.At its annual meeting yesterday, both its chief executive and chairman were quick to remind investors how much better things looked since the demerger. Expect news that Sir Peter has agreed to stand aside by the time of the interims in August.jeremy.warner independent.co.uk.

This is to be Matt Barrett, the present chief executive, yet under the present timetable, Sir Peter isn't due to retire until the end of the year Given the choice, he'd stay even longer. It's become one of the longest handovers in history, to the intense frustration and embarrassment of both Mr Barrett and the man who will step into his shoes as chief executive, John Varley Yet I gather the logjam may finally be about to break. The Government has so far succeeded only in making it harder and more expensive to save voluntarily. Goodness knows what sort of a mess it's going to get us all into when it finally bites the bullet and introduces the notion of compulsion.Barclays old guardI'm picking up more mutterings of discontent in the Barclays hierarchy, where the chairman, Sir Peter Middleton, continues to rule the roost nearly a year after announcing his successor.

Instead, Government policy ­ from the abolition of the tax credit on dividends to the ever-growing mountain of rules and regulations that surround all aspects of savings ­ has served only to damage the industry further.Belatedly, ministers are waking up to the demographic crisis that lies in wait for future generations. The Pensions Commission under the former CBI director-general Adair Turner is the best hope yet of a considered public policy response to the long term savings problem But don't hold your breath. The Government has so disincentivised the process of savings with means tested pension credits that for many it is not worth saving at all.The Government's stated aim when it came to power was to raise the amount of private pension provision to 60 per cent of the total. To the extent that stakeholder pensions have been bought by low paid workers, the original target market, the Government could reasonably be accused of mis-selling, as the effect is only to deprive these savers of the state benefit they would otherwise have been entitled to.