Josephine Cumbo, the FT’s pensions correspondent, has won two prestigious media awards for her reporting, in the year that retirement freedoms revolutionised the industry. At two separate central London ceremonies on Wednesday night, she was crowned journalist of the year by the Society of Pension Professionals, the second year in a row that she has won the accolade.
Duncan Buchanan, President of the Society of Pension Professionals commented: “Our members have recognised Josephine’s valuable contribution to the pensions industry. The Society is very grateful to her for clear reports across the Financial Times and FT Money on topical pension issues.”
Ms Cumbo was also selected from over 200 personal finance journalists to be awarded the title of “personal finance education award” at the 2015 Santander personal finance media awards for her investigation into the lack of transparency in the drawdown market earlier this year – the fastest growing area of the market following April’s pensions freedoms – plus her campaigning work on inequalities in the new state pension.
The judges of the Santander award said Ms Cumbo was “the go to journalists when it comes to the pensions industry.” They added: “This journalist is always on top of the latest developments and translates the complexity of the ever changing area of personal finance into a language her readers can understand”.
Claer Barrett, editor of FT Money, said: “Winning not one, but two major journalism awards in one night shows that Jo is absolutely on top of her game. Her reporting on the huge upheaval within the pensions industry has a natural campaigning flair. Alongside her encyclopaedic knowledge of the UK pensions market, she is able to clearly communicate the import of these changes to FT readers affected by complex tax changes.”
Barrett was the runner up in the Consumer Journalist of the Year category at the Santander awards for her Serious Money columns.
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