ITV Big Pension Prog

EdInvestor

Haven't they chosen the man,rather than the company, to do the research?Fact he's a Norwegian may mean he's likely to be less subject to vested interests.

The Scotsman ays:

Thoresen is keen to point out any free service would complement, rather than compete with, the work of IFAs. He explained: "This service would offer guidance. It wouldn't, for example, recommend products from specific providers. It would link with existing services."

So more educational than anything else, it seems.One can't help thinking this is a Good Thing. It's quite disturbing to see the number of people who come on this site and say - almost like it's a badge of pride - that they "know absolutely nothing about pensions."

If this ITV programme delivers a reality check, then it will have done people a service, even if they don't appreciate it right now.

cheerfulcat

EdInvestor wrote:

So more educational than anything else, it seems.One can't help thinking this is a Good Thing. It's quite disturbing to see the number of people who come on this site and say - almost like it's a badge of pride - that they "know absolutely nothing about pensions."

Oh, come on, Ed.

" This service would offer guidance. It wouldn't, for example, recommend products from specific providers. It would link with existing services "

In other words, it will tell you to speak with an IFA/bank employee/fund provider. How much education do you see on the FSA site? Because that's the amount of education which will be available from the new shambles.

EdInvestor

How much education do you see on the FSA site? Because that's the amount of education which will be available from the new shambles.

Theres' always been quite a lot there actually, but because the site is so big it was a bit difficult to find.

But now they have separated it out.

What's wrong with this then? Seems reasonable to me

dunstonh

EdInvestor wrote:

Haven't they chosen the man,rather than the company, to do the research?Fact he's a Norwegian may mean he's likely to be less subject to vested interests.

Otto Thoresen has been Chief Executive of AEGON UK since April 2005.

Aegon the investment house who also own Scottish Equitable amongst others.

cheerfulcat

Just a reminder; this is on tonight, for anyone interested.

ManAtHome

Aegon look well-placed to advise....NOT. Have they stuck all their cash in a bank current account/mostly under the matress? (or have they been caught with stupid guarantees, or am I just missing something?) http://www.aegonse.co.uk/adviser/funds/917b.htm

EdInvestor

Almost all With-profits funds are in the same situation.

Debt_Free_Chick

What a dreadful programme - shame on you Jeff Randall, I really expected better.

Very light on fact/explanation - more interested in emotion/sensationalism. More Daily Mail than Daily Telegraph.

Although he failed to clarify this in his programme, he was talking about those people in schemes where the employer failed before the Pension Protection Fund was put in place. In fact, he failed to mention the PPF once and the fact that it was put in place to prevent (to an extent) a repeat of the situations shown in the programme.

There were a number of factual inaccuracies - the best one being the statement that "during the Thatcher years, Companies increased the pensions promised to employees. They index-linked pensions and added pensions for spouses on death".

For goodness sake Jeff, where have you been? Did you do absolutely no research? Clearly not, otherwise you would have learned that the Government forced companies to add (limited) inflation proofing to existing pension promises, increasing their liability by millions overnight.

Investing in equities is too risky - akin to betting on the dogs and pensions should be invested in residential property in Dorset as the value has increased by 300% in 10 years, according to Randall.

I don't deny that the position of those people who worked all their life and paid into a final scheme, only to have their pension evaporate when the company when bust is truly appalling. But the programme made no attempt to explain why this happened and why it's unlikely to happen again - at least not to the same extent.

And it failed to point out that "good" companies will be picking up the tab for "bad" companies in the future (via the levy to the PPF).

The solution for those who lost their pensions is simple. The Chancellor should use the £5bn a year he grabbed from pension schemes to fund these lost pensions. Afterall, continuing employers will pay for future failures via the PPF, so let's use the money they've lost to the Chancellor to achieve the same for past failures.

Very, very disappointing. Less "hard-hitting investigative journalism"; more "I'm Jeff Randall and I wannabe the next Trevor McDonald".

cheerfulcat

Oh, hear, hear, DFC. It was a huge disappointment, not least because Jeff Randall usually makes so much sense in his writings! I suppose that, this being ITV, the gimmicky " heist " analogy was unavoidable but there should have been some much more solid stuff in between. Even Ros Altmann was squandered.

EdInvestor

I thought it would be bad when i saw this in the origial press release:

Gradually the surplus vanished and benefits for staff were gone as more money was being withdrawn by those already retired than put in by members and the companies themselves. Soon firms faced enormous pension deficits and in some cases even the threat of insolvency.

What total tosh.