Royal Mail Shares

chucknorris

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Absolutely - especially when you work out how expensive a public sector level of pension would be to buy on the open market now. I don't know about Postmen, but many Teacher's pensions would cost well over a million pounds!!

Absolutely that is the way that I value it, by comparing it to buying an annuity. I am in the teachers pension fund, even though my contributions would have gone up from 6.4% to about 12% next year (currently 10.1%) it is still great value. I work part time but still earn £686 pension each year for a contribution (next year at 12%) of £4,957. I value that £686 at £20,580 because it also has inflation protection and partner rights and a guarantee, and looking at annuities I reckon a factor of 30 is appropriate. The gain is £20,580 less £4,957 = a pension benefit of £15,623 (38% of my salary).

custardy

chucknorris wrote: »

Gone for new entrants yes, but as far as I know existing members are still accruing benefits in the old pension scheme. I didn't assume anything, melbury did, I just pointed out the added value of being a member of the old pension scheme. Although I think a lot of the public sector pension scheme members don't realise how lucky they are to enjoy such a generous pension benefit.

well that is once more under review with proposed changes
The point is its a dying(literally) benefit and is now gone for the last few years

cityfan63

Basil74 wrote: »

In answer to the earlier question the nominee share service (Equiniti) charge 1% of the transaction. With a minimum of (I think) £17.50

I hold an existing equiniti account. If I apply through the website and select to receive the shares using a Royal Mail nominee share service will they be added to my equiniti account or will I have to transfer them in? I don't have experience of this type of situation so I'm not sure how this would work.

buffman

In order to maximise the number of shares allocated, does anyone have any idea the best amount to go for? Ideally I would like to end up with about £10k. Both my wife and I will be applying. If I ask for too many shares, there is a danger of ending up with nothing if the government favours smaller shareholders.

Basil74

Sorry I can't answer that Cityfan, I only know Equiniti is RM's chosen nominee shareholder for all RM employees who are applying for additional shares.

chucknorris

custardy wrote: »

well that is once more under review with proposed changes
The point is its a dying(literally) benefit and is now gone for the last few years

I am well aware of that since my wife has just been redundant because final salary schemes are being phased out, she is an actuary!

grey_gym_sock

chucknorris wrote: »

I am well aware of that since my wife has just been redundant because final salary schemes are being phased out, she is an actuary!

would it be tasteless to say that at least she must have known the probability of that happening? (yup, i thought so.)

chucknorris

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

would it be tasteless to say that at least she must have known the probability of that happening? (yup, i thought so.)

She has known for years that the pension discipline of actuarial the world has been in trouble, but she only wants to work another 6 years and retire at 50. So it isn't/wasn't worth diversifying and taking a few backward steps to rebuild her career in a different direction. She was hoping that things would continue for a bit longer as they were, but he got a years redundancy pay, so the situation isn't too bad and she is actually financially independent and doesn't need to work, she (like me) just prefers to at the moment.

Glen_Clark

The scary thing is there is nothing in the kitty but a pile of debts, with which to pay all these final salary index linked public sector pensions (except for the Bank of England who have their own fund which they switched into index linked gilts before they cranked up the printing presses and trashed ours)

bigadaj

Glen_Clark wrote: »

The scary thing is there is nothing in the kitty but a pile of debts, with which to pay all these final salary index linked public sector pensions (except for the Bank of England who have their own fund which they switched into index linked gilts before they cranked up the printing presses and trashed ours)

I like the circularity of the bank pension investing into gilts, wouldn't advise that in the private sector or we'd end up with another captain bob scenario. Ties in wt the whole qe philosophy, boe buy up government debt by effectively printing money, and ultimately are only backed by hm government, circularity again.