Opinions needed

divorcingjack

Hello all.

I realise I may be stepping into a minefield by starting this tread, but I could really do with some opinions. I am doing a dissertation at the moment on the massive subject of "pensions". It is split into four sections

- Annuities
- What is your pension fund invested in? This includes all asset sectors that occupational funds are normally involved in as well as SIPPS etc.
- Who is looking after your money? Trustees, fund managers, IFA's etc.
- What does the future hold?

It is the last two sections that I am looking for some help on. I really need some people who are either pension fund trustees, fund managers or advisors to chat to about the state of the industry. If any of you are these people, or know anyone that would be willing to give me your opinions/information I would be massively grateful. If you don't want to post on the thread, please PM me.

Thanks again,

dj

EdInvestor

Who is the "you" referred to here? As in "your" pension fund, "your" money?

Is it meant to be you personally, that is, are you supposed to investigate your own (occupational or other) pension?

If so, perhaps you could briefly tell us what you have found out so far and we could then fill in some of the gaps.

divorcingjack

Hi Edinvestor,

thanks for the reply. Sorry if my post was unclear - I am writing about the general subject of pensions for a non-specialist audience. When I said "your" pension, I meant that I am trying to summarise the main areas that pension funds are invested in - equities, bonds, property etc. Also, I am trying to get together a profile of some of the people involved in the industry and their opinons on it. For example, I would love to chat to someone who serves as a pension fund trustee to find out a little more about them and how they make the decisions they do. I am just trying to generate some backround information and get an "inside track" on the latest developments and controversies surrounding the subject.

Hopefully this makes it a little clearer.

Thanks again for your help,

dj

cheerfulcat

divorcingjack wrote:

Also, I am trying to get together a profile of some of the people involved in the industry and their opinons on it.

Then you are asking in entirely the wrong place. You won't find many people in the industry on MSE.

ReportInvestor

Independent

A Day has given people a chance to catch up with their pension according to a former IFA. [Or another reason to put it off?!?]

Of course there is likely to be even more catching up to do in future with house price rises and burgeoning student loans adding pressure on graduates.

The links below should give you a few more sources and opinions.

The pensions' mess

Investing for retirement
Although we do tend to more pro-SIPP than the mainstream .

EdInvestor

Rather an err, big subject you've chosen there

There are 2 industry commentators who will give you mainstream opinion on the life industry view:
Stewart Ritchie at Scottish Equitable

And Steve Bee at Scottish Life.

There are plenty of papers about company pensions at

https://www.actuaries.org.uk and https://www.sias.org.uk

For a robust and lucid overview, tryhttps://www.johnralfe.com - in particular his reporting and analysis of the actuaries' failure to grasp financial economics is very helpful in explaining the fundamental problems in this area.

The Barclays Equity and Gilt Study just released has an excelent analysis of the whole defined benefit pensions mess, why it happened, who caused it, why it's getting worse, if you can get hold of it.