Friday, March 28, 2014

Pension shake-up will leave some high and dry without proper guidance

The Coversation was a good find. An mostly pragmatic and more worldly version of Wales@home.
Any talk of pensions(like here) also seems to include the assertion that without proper professional advice punters will make the wrong decisions.

7 years as a trustee of a large D.C. pension fund made me very cynical of the finanical advice industry, it is not fit for purpose, depsite recent changes. While I very much welcome the pension changes, if the financial ecosystem is too complex for a person of average inteligence and average general knowledge to make their own good decisions, then it is just too complex and in need of urgent reform. I can't see such reforms to empower Joe and Jane public happening, the various vested interests have too much stake in the current complex ecosystem and the resultant fee income continuing.

This is why Defined Benefit schemes were a good idea, they put risk and decision making generally in the hands of those who have enough knowledge to make informed decisions.

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