From the blog: The last print issue of Pensions Expert for the year went out on Monday, so as we cool our heels and begin winding down for Christmas I am left wondering what we as an industry will be talking about next year.
With stories such as Tata Steel and BHS, 2016 was a big news year for pensions.
The only problem for our industry is that it was a much bigger year for other news.
With stories such as Tata Steel and BHS, 2016 was a big news year for pensions. The only problem for our industry is that it was a much bigger year for other news.
For all that retail investors began to take notice of the risks posed by large defined benefit deficits, and Philip Green began appearing on the nightly news, so too did Trump, Brexit and Putin.
So many of the issues our industry is working to solve require buy-in from consumers. People won’t save more unless they stop to listen about why they should. How long could poor corporate governance last if everyone with a pension pot realised the voting power of their holdings?
Richard Butcher of PTL told me earlier this month the industry shouldblame itself when people don’t engage. While I admire the sentiment, it’s easy to understand how replacement rates are missed when they are competing with the alleged hacking of the US election for column inches.
Ultimately, the amount an individual in the UK has in their pension will probably have a far greater effect on them than whoever is the US president at the time; more needs to be done by the industry to drive that home for people.
The success of auto-enrolment so far has cleverly piggybacked on the tendency for people to do nothing. That will only take us so far; the success of pensions will require people to understand what they can do, and that is a far greater challenge
Thank you for reading Pensions Expert, and I hope 2017 is as kind to you as 2016 was to Nigel Farage.
