Government control of pension pots

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81966762#Comment_81966762

Auto enrolment ( mainly) has brought about the position where people moving jobs regularly end up with multiple small pots.

I believe the Govt was looking into ways of helping people in this situation, by assisting them in some way to consolidate the pots, or making the pensions more portable or something along those lines. I have no idea at what stage this is at.

Lorian

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81966856#Comment_81966856

Not very. Something about creating mega funds? It's some time since it was mentioned

gm0

Just because the soft end of the media are scaremongering for clicks. Doesn't make a treasury of any colour fiddling with our asset allocation any more attractive or desirable. Even a stopped clock is correct twice per 24 hours.

The divert capital to UK initiative and broader yet poorly defined "infrastructure" ideas (festooned with other government hobby horses as they will inevitably be) - cost efficiency and ROIC for the pensioner being far down the list or requirements. It's just another soft tax grab. Even if it's not malign of intent at root. There is a UK capital market decline problem visible.

But as with many roads to hell this one is paved with good intentions.

And yet the idea of what is a default fund evolves over the decades. At one time (1980s) it was often 100% UK. FTSE UK All Share as "default". GBP. UK market and FTSE100 as "proxy" for global investing and the contemporary attitude to currency.

Then of course many got moved towards "global" and 4% UK. The seesaw tilts again. Bit of a so what.

It's the principle of the interference I object to more.

I view it with the same enthusiasm I would a company pension getting invested in the company stock (as with Enron). Ask those people how that went when their pensions vaporised. Maxwell issues ibid in UK prior. See also DJT tokens (now).

Whatever our version of those hucksters would come up with if allowed near the steering wheel. Bad principle to establish that they do it at all. Better to have clear legal safeguards around fidicuary duty and trustees and other layers of defense - to actively prevent interference of this sort. It's not their money to fiddle with. Hands off.

GenX0212

The idea fills me with horror. Can you imagine if this had been in place as a mechanism for funding infrastructure projects such as HS2, the tunnel under Stonehenge, the 2nd Thames crossing etc etc, where would the return be? Certainly not in our lifetimes. IMHO the Government should keep their beak out and let markets work for themselves.

af1963

"Keep their beak out and let the markets work for themselves" would imply the removal of all the tax breaks. No thanks.

GenX0212

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967254#Comment_81967254

Not sure how you arrive at that statement from my post?

Storcko14

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81967173#Comment_81967173

Thing is it's not that simple is it? Unless you're happy without public goods like street lights, public parks, law enforcement etc which the market isn't gonna provide unless it can find a way of charging you for exclusive use.

Linton

If one wants to raise money for long term investment surely the way to do it is with bonds. Very little of the money placed in the share market goes into increasing the underlying physical asset base, rather it’s shareholders selling shares to each other at increasing prices.

GenX0212

Those types of services are covered by Council Tax and general Taxation though they're not infrastructure in an investment sense.

Railways, Transport, Green energy, Nuclear Power, Research etc all require investment and when Government led they all typically cost £100's millions in planning alone, often without a single spade ever going in the ground.
Private companies make massive income and profit from those activities in consultation and legal costs which goes back into their share price not into a GB fund which your pension would be invested in.

LHW99

As has been raised here a few times, how will it be decided what counts as a UK company? There are many companies listed in the UK, which are actually controlled abroad.

Unfortunately there is a history going back as far as I can remember of there being pretty well nothing that (any) Government's interference in can't make worse.