“As for pensions – tell me what to do and let me get on with it!”

Posted on April 24, 2018 by henry tapper

I can do it

The quote in the title comes from a friend of mine, who has a successful web-based comparison site (that doesn’t compare pensions). The comment has haunted me since Christmas.

What’s that coming over the hill?!?

uh- “guidance”…

uh – “single guidance body”

The Financial Guidance Bill is making its way through parliament.

If Government were following the rules of business, it would have scrapped the central construct of the new legislation, the single guidance body. Instead the amendments listed here support the inexorable progress of this quango, the lovechild of the Money Advice Service and Pension Wise.

Pension Wise has not been a success. Infact it has been a failure. If it was proof of concept for the single guidance body, it has shown that the concepts of financial guidance, advice and education are no closer to being grasped by the general public than they were by the Chancellor in his budget speech of 2014.

We are in danger of quarantining the phrase “financial advice”, in a place where only highly qualified financial advisers can go. If we define “financial advice” , as the Pension Advisory Service does, as the provision of a definitive course of action, then you’re not going to get “it” unless you sign a terms of business and pay money for it. Financial advisers would say this is as it should be. Their lobby has effectively created a monopoly on “telling people what to do”. But of course you cannot quarantine something as amorphous as “advice” and as there are financial implications to most things we do, the quarantining of financial advice will be as helpful as nailing water to a wall.

The single “guidance” body had, at one times, designs on requiring us to all be subject to a “sheep dip” known as a “mid-life financial MOT”. The idea was, that rather than the voluntary guidance available from Pension Wise, we would be forced to pay attention, at least for forty minutes, to our long-term finances. Not since the introduction of compulsory education in schools, has such an ambitious program been proposed. Unsurprisingly, the idea appears to have reached its high-water mark.

So what is emerging is a very insubstantial Bill with the feel about it of fairground crab-thrapping. Whacking a crab (or mole) is hugely satisfying to the thrapper, but crabs and moles abound and the faster you hit them, the more they reappear, You can be a champion thrapper, but the crabs and moles survive to carry out their pernicious practices once you have left the stall.

The amendments are principally around pension cold-calling, which will be banned (at least from within the UK) from as early as the summer. This is a victory for good sense, though it will hardly leave the scammers exposed. Already, lead generators are hard at work creating pension enquiries from online activities that lead us to leaving our telephone numbers in a data capture device. My guess is that these “hot leads”, self-generated” will solicit a phone call which will be “warm” enough.

It is very hard to see us preventing scamming by suppressing supply. The best way to suppress scamming is to improve the supply of relevant help for people.

The absence of “help” on pensions is very evident to the general public.

If you go to “Go Compare” or “Compare the Market” of “Money Supermarket”, you will be able to get your car insured, your life insured, sort out short term savings, find out about mortgages, compare credit cards – do all kind of useful financial tasks.

But you will not be able to find out about your pensions. mse3

Even Martin Lewis is silent on pensions. I’ve been going to MoneySavingExpert for 10 years now and I have never seen so little stuff on pensions on the site. Not one of the headline services is talking about retirement, retirement saving – the word pension seems to be taboo.

The sad truth is that none of the great comparison websites that are so crucial to our financial decision making, has a pensions business.

Talk to the people who run these sites and they are not happy about this. They would like people to come to their sites and transact. But they find it very difficult to help.

Over the next few months, I will be exploring why this is. I want to know what is stopping people taking decisions on what to save, where to save and how to spend their savings, without recourse to advice or government guidance or a financial education program.

I want to know why everyone thinks its so easy to press a button marked “transact” for credit cards, ISAs , loans and insurance but why pensions remains “out of bounds”.

I want to know why telling someone what to do is a “quarantined” action and how people can by-pass advice and do things for themselves without risk of being bitten by some rabid scammer.

I want to know why people can’t manage their financial affairs in retirement without being considered “Lamborghini” feckless or recklessly conservative.

We should not give up on providing people with a definitive course of action.

As well as reading the amendments to the Pension Bill, I also had the time to read an article in Pensions Expert which contained this interesting thought.

When the Department for Work and Pensions allowed the industry to block mastertrust Nest from entering the drawdown market in 2017, it did so with a proviso; the industry had to drive innovation itself.

The “reassurances” offered to policymakers were such that the DWP expressed “hope that development of new products will progress at pace now that the freedom and choice reforms are well established”.

One year on, and some politicians are questioning whether the collection of competing mastertrusts and insurers have earned their respite from what they had labelled market distortion

Politicians I speak to are as frustrated as the general public that there is no “obvious thing to do” – no definitive course of action.

For the public to be satisfied, they need to be able to get to grips with pensions as they can do with any other financial matter.

This country has one of the great internet buying cultures of the world, according to Wake up to Money this morning, 17% of all shopping now happens on-line. And yet , outside of the workplace, nothing “pension-wise” is happening at all.

It really is time we started putting to people default solutions that make simple sense. Innovation is needed and innovation is happening, talk to the 145,000 Royal Mail postal workers.

Origo has reduced the processing time of transfers from 50 days to 12 days, there are opportunities to go further.

Innovative new aggregators are coming into the market and talking about ways of looking at products using value for money scoring to compare “apples” with “pears”.

In short, the Financial Guidance Bill is a hopeless irrelevance that simply treads water. The single guidance body will be a flop, as Pensions Wise was a flop. People don’t get guidance, they want advice and they want to be told what to do by people like Martin Lewis who they trust.

They can’t get what they want right now and they are rightly frustrated (as are the politicians).

This all adds up to this being a time of opportunity, for someone to take a lead and deliver what people really want – a definitive course of action – being told what to do!

Posted in pensions | Tagged Compare the Market, Go Compare, Martin Lewis, Money Supermarket, MSE, pensions, Single guidance body | 3 Comments

Whatever happened to “pot follows member”?

Posted on April 23, 2018 by henry tapper

pot holes

The Liberal pension spokesperson – the very shadowy Stephen Lloyd, has labelled the Conservative Government “incompetent” for shelving Steve Webb’s pot follows member initiative (which should have arrived in 2016).

Guy Opperman, with the weight of the Government’s massive research into this area (ho ho ho), has determined that “now is not the right time” for such an initiative. This is “not so subtle” code for “don’t bother me with this, I have enough on my plate”.

Guy does indeed have a few matters on his plate, like sorting out the rules for Royal Mail and others to go CDC and – more importantly to his reputation – to make something happen with this Government Pension Dashboard.

The CDC project appears to be moving in the right direction and I hear word that it may yet adopt some of the unloved DA legislation in PA 2015. If that’s the case, then CDC may have more flowers blooming in its garden than the snowdrops seen so far.

The Pensions Dashboard is doomed to failure so long as it is a Government project. The only way to make Government Pension Policy to work is to put it in the hands of Michelle Cracknell but as she is currently fighting for TPAS’ identity in the brave new world of the single guidance body, I doubt she is in any position to help.

Lovers of grand Government pension initiatives will point to auto-enrolment – but that work because the Pensions Regulator let the private sector get on with it. They will talk of NEST, but that worked because it was given a £1.2bn leg-up by the tax-payer and got extremely lucky (just how close to being a net-pay disaster NEST was, has yet to be revealed). NEST worked because of Tim Jones and latterly Helen Dean and because (for once) the DWP had a 10 year run at it.

None of which is the case with the Pensions Dashboard, which has Charlotte Clark (a NEST stalwart in charge, but the budget of a Lada to NEST’s Rolls Royce).

And so to pot follows member

The best thing to say about the Government’s policy on pot follows member, is that it has abandoned it. Government could no more direct pots to follow members than Canute could have directed the tide to reverse and keep Canute dry.

Pots will follow members when

It is easy to aggregate
People know the value of their various pots (not just £sd but Vfm)
There is something worth aggregating to.

Since most of the best pension schemes are not generally open for aggregation, point 3 is very live. There are aggregators out there, ready to get your money, but frankly – how do you know they are any good?

The argument that if you transferred a DC pot , you might be putting “the Ming Vase in a boot sale”, carries some wait. But not if there was a financial equivalent of an Antiques Roadshow for legacy financial products. You do not need an Arthur Negus to spot a Guaranteed Annuity Rate, you simply need a robust process that ensures that GARs and other financial oddities are flagged by ceding insurers.

The more general argument – that there is no Value for Money measure to compare a legacy pension pot with a Pension Bee or Evestor, is more serious. People will not press the transfer button without a degree of confidence – and short of an adviser telling them what to do (and taking some responsibility for the outcome), people are not transferring “old pots for new”.

What can the Government do?

If Guy Opperman was in listening mode (as he has been with CDC), then he would go and have a chat with the people at the Treasury who conceived Pension Dashboard 1.0. This conception stopped short of a Government built and run dashboard and encouraged small, agile Fintechs to use the protocols created by Government to gather data about pots and their value (and value for money).

This work is being carried out in the institutional space by Chris Sier and his IDWG, but there is (as yet) no retail trickle-down. Opperman should speak with Dr Sier to see how the templates he is creating (to find out what we are paying and getting for fund management) could be used to find out what we are paying and getting for policy management (e.g. the vfm of the pension contracts themselves).

The Government can also shake up the FCA to shake up the IGCs to ensure that recalcitrant insurers make contract information available to organisations establishing dashboards with which people can monitor “value”, “money”, “value for money” and press the button that says “transact”.

We have the tools.

One of the oddities of pension policy is that we have – very slowly, built up the tools to allow pots to follow member. We can quite easily run dashboards and we could populate those dashboards with real-time data which could allow people to take decisions about which pots to fold into what pots!

We also have the technology, much of which has come to us from auto-enrolment. I’m talking about the application programming interfaces (APIs), which we’ve built to allow insurance and trust based record keeping systems to talk to payroll (and other) systems.

We have the understanding of slippage to know how to get at the hidden costs within funds and this can be extended to understand slippage within policies (the cost of life styling for instance). So we can tell “money”.

We have a way of measuring gross and net performance so we can check that our money calcs are accurate and that the slippage between the performance of the assets and that of the fund is in line with our slippage calculation.

And if we can measure net performance, we can assess it on a risk adjusted basis so that we can tell people on a lemons v limes basis, whether one contract is giving better value for money than another.

We can even – for those who value these things – measure the user experience of one contract against each other, so that people besotted by one platform’s support, can compare it with another’s.

Whatever happened to “pot follows member”.

Pot follows member is stuck and – left to the Government -it’s going nowhere. But the Government don’t know what its like to have multiple DC pots (they have DB pensions).

People who have multiple pots and are closing in on 55, want all their pots in one great-big-pot”, because they know about economies of scale, because they know how hard it is to manage pension freedoms from multiple pots and because they suspect that some of their legacy pots aren’t doing them any favours.

The one chink of light in the gloomy pre-Brexit penumbra, is that people like me are talking about this and that out there – deep in the gloom – people are building the kit that will make pots follow member.

I will keep writing these blogs in the hope that people will call me on 07785 377768 or email me henry.tapper@pensionplaypen.com and join the swelling band.

Pot will follow member – whatever the Pension Minister says!

Pensions or pots

Posted in pensions, steve webb | Tagged dc, Guy Opperman, pensions, Pot follows member, stephen lloyd, Steve Webb | 1 Comment

By George, I just shrunk the pension!

Posted on April 19, 2018 by henry tapper

honey i.PNG

While “workplace pensions” go from strength to strength in terms of coverage, the amount of money being paid as “pensions”, certainly in the private sector, is likely to shrink. this article looks at why and asks some awkward questions about the long term consequences to ordinary people when they lose their “wage for life”.

The Office of National Statistics publish a document known as MQ5 which contains a spreadsheet – famous to actuaries – table 4.2 (Pictured below) ONS funds

It contains regularly updated data on the state of UK pensions and is studied with the intensity of astronomers peering at the milky way.

The latest update- keenly awaited- contained the 2017 numbers; the stand-out number is a jump in transfers out of defined benefit pensions into personal pension “pots” from £12bn in 2016 to £34bn in 2017. This is the actuarial equivalent to finding a “black-hole” on your galactic doorstep.

The £34bn in voluntary transfers is not only three times the 2016 level, it is three times the amount involved in insurance buy-outs – the accepted medium by which trustees get rid of their liabilities or (more politely) “de-risk” their scheme.

The unseemly rush to the door is proving an embarrassment to all parties; the Pensions Regulator is consulting with the FCA, the FCA is consulting with the public. This was definitely not in the Treasury forecasts , published in the wake of the 2014 budget announcement.

From Treasury impact assessment of Pension Freedoms -2014

The stable door is open and meanwhile wealth managers are leading out the horses with the cheerful message “buy now while stocks last”.

There is a real threat that the bonanza will not last; the FCA’s consultation is into whether contingent charging should be banned. Were it to be banned, the current ability of advisers to charge fees “contingent” on the transfer going ahead, has enabled payments of tens of thousands of pounds from tax-exempt pension pots – VAT exempt.

Many pension experts consider that it is contingent pricing – a practice that has come to the fore in the past two years, which has led to the astonishing increase in transfers.

But the stable door will be shut too late for billions more to have transferred and this is now a genuine issue for those in reward. For so long as this money was destined to pay pensions, it was “deferred pay”, with the money in “wealth”, the link with reward is broken.

As steelworkers in Port Talbot discovered, the arrival of six figure sums into accounts of those over 55, gives people the confidence to retire immediately. Many advisers complain that the transfer values, high as they seem, are inadequate to support early retirement but the lure not just of pension freedom, but freedom from the blast furnaces, has proved compelling.

Included in the £34bn – identified by the ONS will be £4.2bn from the Barclays staff pension scheme, £3bn from the Lloyds Banking Group Pension Scheme and close to £3bn from the British Steel pension scheme. These huge sums will never be paid by pensioner payroll, they will be drawn down from self-invested personal pensions or cashed out to buy anything from home improvements to Lamborghinis.

While former pension minister – Steve Webb – may continue to argue that people are quite entitled to swap their pension for a sports car, those in reward may feel differently. The traditional point of running a pension scheme was to ensure that long serving employees can move from employment to retirement and be paid a wage for life.

Instead, some communities, Port Talbot among them, are now swamped with pension wealth which may last as long as a lottery win. The implications for the communities are worrying as is the impact on the workplaces. While one generation of workers are enjoying a windfall from a defined benefit pension, another is struggling to accumulate money in a workplace plan.

If reward strategies are to be deemed fair, there will have to be a remarkable recalibration of pension policies. For many of the children of those retiring today will be seeing their pension pots accumulate at the auto-enrolment rates.

And it is only a matter of time before some of these transfers are spent and former workers find themselves looking for work again, as they discover that they are rather more healthy than they’d ever expected to have been.

All of which leads us back to the orderly dispersion of money through a pensioner payroll. The idea of a stream of payments that last as long as you do, is deeply unfashionable at the moment. However, we may look back at the transfer frenzy of 2017 and 2018 as a time of great loss.

The discipline of paying and receiving a pension, relative to the drawdown of a capital sum, is something that it is easy to dispense but very hard to return to. Let’s hope that we learn that lesson before there is nothing much left in ours great private pension schemes – to pay out

Posted in pensions | Tagged George Osbornes, ONS, Payroll, pension transfers, pensions | 4 Comments

From EasyBuild to Peoples Pension; B&CE’s IGC’s “special purpose”.

Posted on April 16, 2018 by henry tapper

Time to pack your bags

BB&CE’s workplace pension empire has changed. EasyBuild is shrinking its policyholders and moving their “pots” to the People’s Pension with the help of The B&CE IGC.

EasyBuild was once Britain’s largest stakeholder pension scheme, the B&CE flagship. , B&CE has moved with some agility to running one of Britain’s largest master trusts – People’s Pension.

The transition is a result of Government interventions, the stakeholder initiative has been supplanted by auto-enrolment. B&CE has been at the forefront of providing for small employers and their members both as a stakeholder and master trust provider and should be commended for its foresight, responsiveness and operational efficiency.

Over the course of 2017, all but £9m of the £1.2 bn. in EasyBuild moved to People’s Pension , securing lower charges and a more certain future for the rump of stakeholder pensioners. Of the 2000 policies remaining in EasyBuild, 400 are for those who have died (and are awaiting payment) and 700 are in the process of transferring away to other providers, the 900 members left will be looked after by the IGC, though you would hope that keeping an expensive governance committee in place for much longer , can be avoided.

The B&CE IGC has overseen an effective dismantlement of EasyBuild and , though it fights on for lower charges for the remaining members, the work of Delo, Pickering et al is as good as done. Those who were members can thank their IGC for doing an effective job. I give them a green – this transition has no doubt been conducted better for their help, expertise and oversight.

The 2017-18 IGC report still engages

One of the good things about reviewing IGC reports is that none are written to a template (unlike some GAA reports). Even with such a meagre audience, the B&CE report reads a considered piece of work. Steve Delo, the Chair, is used to working to a tight time and financial budget and though there is a little padding (see appendices), this report is engaging and – for those interested in consolidation of small pots – a fascinating case study. It is to both the IGC’s and B&CE’s credit that this report exists and reads as well as it does ; it too gets a green.

Value for Money

I won’t go so far as give the report green for amber for money. I will give it an amber, since what is happening within EasyBuild is no more than care and maintenance. While the 900 members who choose to stay within EasyBuild may be an irritant to B&CE, they have taken a conscious decision to stay (opting-out of the transfer). B&CE pledged to provide a stakeholder pension through to their chosen retirement date and has an obligation to do so and these members deserve to be treated as fairly as any other customers (including members of People’s Pension).

I fear for groups like this, the pensions equivalent of property tenants and owners , holding up the clearance of sites intended for other purposes. While I am sure they will not be harassed, let’s make sure they leave on good terms. I hope too that they are not holding out for bonus payments to clear off and that B&CE will not buy them out on special terms. The IGC should not be kept alive as part of a protracted dispute ; it should close itself down as soon as the FCA will let it.

Since the sum of money the IGC is looking after (£9m) is rather lower than the governance budgets of some larger IGCs, I suspect that given time, the IGC will become one of Easybuild’s greater expenses, because of the stakeholder charge cap – that expense won’t fall to the remaining few policyholders, but it will put a brake on greater value for money which no doubt be available elsewhere.

In Conclusion

The transition of almost all assets within EasyBuild to People’s is another quiet success story for People’s Pension and for its owner B&CE.

Because the transition has been successful, it is not subject to the publicity that usually accompanies the wind up of a collective financial arrangement.

Other IGCs should look at the example that B&CE has created and ask whether there may not be arrangements such as EasyBuild within its remit, that could be managed into the equivalent of People’s Pension (a large and growing arrangement offering better value for money for members.

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged B&CE, pensions, Technology | 2 Comments

Nothing wrong with being contrarian – the Hargreaves Lansdown 2018 IGC report

Posted on April 15, 2018 by henry tapper

HL Workplace solutiosn

There’s a compelling logic to the HL IGC Chair’s introduction

Since they all relate to value for money for scheme members, our findings and progress are set out in the following analysis of value for money.

Value for Money is not only the measure, improving it is the objective and that objective leads to increased contributions. This is the conclusion of the HL IGC and it is one that HL would undoubtedly sign up to. Higher contributions equals higher shareholder value from the HL Workplace SIPP. Wins all round.

I buy into this vision, where the customers are engaged in saving and investment and HL has a very special type of customer, it has customers that not only can – but want to “do it themselves”.

Evidence of the utilisation of non-default funds can be seen in the number of members making alternative investment choices. 29%of members (28% last year) invest outside of the default funds and 53% of HL’s workplace pension scheme assets (51% last year) are outside of the default funds. This reflects a high level of member engagement.

This is the contrarian world of Hargreaves Lansdown, a firm that demonstrates what can be done by knowing your customers. But highly engaged customers can be vulnerable too, there is a fiduciary responsibility on HL and its IGC and the challenge for HL is to make sure that when focussing on greater engagement (and contributions) HL do no take advantage of the position it has built up – and rip-off its customer base.

My worry is that the HL IGC are a little in awe of the reputation of Hargreaves Lansdown and forget that their primary responsibility is to the member.

The good news for HL customers is that the default workplace options available to employers and members are currently delivering the goods

hl perf

The not so good news is that when it comes to the “money” side of things, the HL IGC is rather short on detail.

The real issue is whether the entire proposition represents value for money and the IGC continues to keep all dimensions of the offering under close review; at present the IGC is happy to confirm the services provided within the platform fee do represent good value for members

This would be fine if there was evidence of how HL’s charges compare with other similar providers. “At present”, suggests that the IGC has it in mind to demand improvements in member charges as HL’s proposition grows in shareholder value.

The (otherwise pretty boring) findings of the member survey , includes this conclusion about HL satisfaction scores

Most were rated as either good or excellent. However, one area the IGC were concerned with was the relatively high number of ‘I don’t know’ responses to the cost of the plan

You would have thought that the IGC would have used the opportunity of the Chair report to explain how HL is making its money and give members the transparency they claim they lack.

But the report fails to do this. Though we have tables on communication metrics (how long does it take HL to respond to an email) we do not have tables on how much members are really paying for their funds and how much less they would be paying, if HL was passing on the full value of the investment management agreements it is negotiating with fund managers.

This is particularly the case with regards the passive default fund, the “BlackRock Consensus 85 fund”. If I was an experienced investor reading the IGC report, I would be particularly interested to see a transparent assessment of the money that HL are making from promoting this fund (as well s the other defaults).

There is not enough in the IGC report for me to be frustrated, but the absence of close analysis of HL’s charging structure is now a priority. I’m giving the IGC an amber for its analysis of value for money and an amber for the effectiveness of its work. But I will give the report a green as a read, it is a very engaging document.

In conclusion

The report reads well , but there is too much missing. I am not happy to see no mention of HL’s attitude (or lack of one) to ESG management , I am not convinced that life styling ordinary people to cash, is a good at retirement strategy and (as talked of in this article) I’m worried that the HL IGC is not asking awkward questions about the commercials of the HL Workplace SIPP.

Posted in pensions | Tagged Hargreaves Lansdown, HL, IGC, pensions, workplace Pensions | Leave a comment

Pension paralysis over the net-pay rip off.

Posted on April 13, 2018 by henry tapper

paralysis

I won’t bore you with a list, but there are 31 blogs on this site dealing with various aspects of the net-pay rip-off which is denying hundreds of thousands of low-paid people the incentive promised them by HMRC for contributing into workplace pensions.

It is a scandal, the pensions industry are complicit in allowing it to become one and this blog explains why the situation has got to the state it has. It also gives some hints to employers who don’t want to be a party to yet another pension scam.

I’m writing this article because net-pay has finally become topical. It’s become topical because a pension consultancy (Hymans Robertson) has launched a report on the matter which has sufficient PR behind it to get it media prominence. Good for Hymans Robertson, they are part of the solution, but why has it taken them and others 3 years to wake up?

How did we get here?

Around October 2015, payroll experts, notably Kate Upcraft, noticed that the lower threshold for auto-enrolment contribution and the minimum threshold for income tax were diverging so that some people could be paying no tax , getting no tax relief and yet being auto-enrolled.

As Kate and I and a few others looked further, we realised that a lot of auto-enrolment was starting at £1 of earnings (this is what happens at the House of Fraser). This means that all low-earners in net pay auto-enrolment schemes, could be missing out on incentives to contribution. Then remember that many people on habitual low-earnings “spike” into auto-enrolment – as a result of a well-paid pay period and you realise that auto-enrolment’s 11m new participants , include a few hundred thousand who get no incentive to contribute – just because their employer is operating net-pay rather than RAS.

From my emails that Kate Upcraft first had a meeting with the DWP about this in November 2015, and NOW Pensions and my blog were flagging all this from mid September 2015. Kate first discussed this with me in July 2015.

It is very hard to know how many people are contributing to DC schemes under net pay and missing the incentive. Many are doing so under salary sacrifice and are completely off the radar. Lloyds Banking Group reckon that they may have as many as 3000 such employees on their own. Since the vast majority of own occupation occupational schemes are set up under net-pay and as many of them (for instance Whitbread) have high numbers of low-earning, part-timers, I think our initial estimate of 300,000 people in the “rip-off”, should be revised upwards.

Over the past 3 years, despite my blogs, Ros Altmann’s blogs and the pleading of parts of the payroll industry (Kate Upcraft in particular), nothing has happened. OK Now has cobbled together a fly-by-wire compensation structure, but other than that NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!

WHY HAS NOTHING HAPPENED?

Nothing has happened because virtually all the players in this sorry fiasco , have blood on their hands.

Chief culprits are the consultants, who both recommended employers set up net-pay arrangements (which suit the high-earning purchasers very well) and administer them on systems which are “net-pay only”.

These consultants – especially the big three – Mercer, WTW and Aon, have now gone further and set up their master-trusts under net pay. That means that they are so steeped in net-pay themselves that they can say nothing on the subject. No advice- no action, the large employers sail on ignoring their low-earning members and no-one, not the PMI or PLSA or AMNT or any other trade body does a thing about it.

Now let’s look at the employers. Quite apart from feeling they are absolved by their consultants, they have no wish to deal with this issue on any commercial grounds. The staff who are missing out are their least valued, they are probably more mobile than senior staff but even if they aren’t they have no voice. They have no voice because their normal representatives – the unions – are making no noise.

I do not know why the unions are not bothered about this issue. Perhaps it is because this is DC, perhaps because of phasing, the scale of the problem is currently too small, perhaps because one of the unions has a 50% share in a net-pay mastertrust. Anyway, the unions have generally been quiet on this issue and that has let the employers and their advisers off the hook.

All of which is leading up to the great big villain of the piece – the Government – more especially HMRC – who see Net Pay as a handy way of avoiding the impact of auto-enrolment on tax inflows. Having a high number of low-earners outside of the RAS system is just fine by HMRC, and as the low-earners are not even being told they are being ripped off, this situation can go on bubbling away – just like PPI.

Just like PPI!

Of course we all know what happens when the PPI bubble bursts. You get hundreds of thousands of claimants downloading forms from Money Saving Expert and demanding expensive to administer compensation for being ripped off.

Which is exactly where HMRC is heading.

And even if employers and unions aren’t directly in the line of fire, they will find themselves with the same collateral damage as all those who condoned PPI find themselves with.

This is another version of the “too big to fail” problem. The PLSA, PMI, Consultants, Employers, Unions and most of all HMRC really do believe that they can keep a lid on the Net Pay scandal, because it is so big that no-one will have enough energy to lift the lid on it.

Well done Hymans Robertson (and a few others)

It may have escaped notice, but there are consultants who don’t run their own master trusts and who are prepared to stand up and be counted – even if it means pissing off some of their clients. Hymans Robertson are the biggest, Lane Clark Peacock are another and First Actuarial are a (smaller) third. Apart from us and a gaggle of smaller consultancies too numerous to mention – (oh and JLT), all the other pension consultancies run their own net pay master trusts and they all do their own administration. JLT of course administer NOW Pensions master trust – and they can’t offer NOW a relief at source solution.

Of course we do have our own vested interests and by writing about net-pay I will undoubtedly piss off some of our clients and introducers. But we really do need to solve this problem and as an industry – put pressure on HMRC to find a proper solution. So long as most of the stakeholders in this debate remain conflicted and stay silent – that will not happen.

Possible solutions

Because NEST is a relief at source scheme, many large employers have put in place a NEST scheme for low-earners and the problem (for them) is mainly solved. I know of at least one large employer with their own occupational DC arrangement (net-pay) considering a GPP for low-earners.

I have seen (from Kate Upcraft) various solutions that could be administered by HMRC , which would compensate those on net pay without incentives, through “year end sweeps”.

And I know that some workplace pensions operating under Net Pay (Smart for instance) are promising to offer Relief at Source within a few months.

People’s Pension of course has the best solution which is to offer both forms of relief(though not within one employer arrangement).

All of these solutions are pro-tem till HMRC gets its act together. HMRC were the bright lads who introduced Relief At Source and HMRC should have it in them to provide us with the long-term solution. I don’t know what the long-term solution looks like but we cannot go on like this!

In conclusion

So rather than right another 32 blogs about net-pay, I hope that others apart from Hymans Robertson , will do it for me. I hope that the PLSA and PMI and other bodies will start lobbying HMRC for fairness for those on low-earning and I really hope that we will have – in quick time- a solution that ensures that a large part of the newly phased contribution increases of those on minimum auto-enrolment contributions, are given what the Government has promised them – an incentive equivalent to basic rate tax-relief – WHETHER THEY PAY TAX OR NOT!

Posted in Payroll, pensions | Tagged HMRC, Hymans Robertson, net-pay, Paralysis, pensions, Research, tax relief | 5 Comments

Laugh, cry, applaud! Zurich’s IGC report is flawed – but a “must read”

Posted on April 13, 2018 by henry tapper

zurich ass

I don’t know whether to laugh, applaud or cry when reading Zurich IGC reports and Laurie Edmans’ third report is no exception.

Laugh – because of Laurie’s brutal honesty

But from the members’ perspective, it does not matter whether the issues are industry wide or not. The fact is that the considerable majority of scheme members have little idea whether what and how they are saving is going to give them the lifestyle in retirement they expect.

Cry at the massive amount of customer research that has led the IGC to this conclusion.

Or applaud Laurie for pursuing the course most difficult, questioning whether we can ever sufficiently empower customers for the task ahead of them – to manage an income for life from a pot of money built up within a DC plan.

This may explain my erratic ratings of previous reports. I veer between violently agreeing , ranting with frustration and then smiling appreciatively at Laurie’s great project.

Sadly, that project will not be continuing as intended. Zurich’s modern pensions, the book of DC business established since the turn of the century, has been sold to Scottish Widows, what will be left will be the old Eagle Star and Allied Dunbar books, which hardly bear examination under the ambitious project that Laurie and his colleagues embarked on in 2017.

Value for Money

The IGC comes to one important conclusion that every other IGC should contemplate. Relative to its peer group, the Zurich Corporate Pension is succeeding, but relative to what members want – it is not.

This tough assessment results from the consumer research conducted between 2015 and 2016. It is not based on Laurie’s private prejudices. It is ironic that the largest scheme that Zurich has underwritten, the Royal Mail’s DC plan, looks likely to be abandoned by its 40,000 members, in favour of a CDC plan which – to the Postal Workers – delivers what they want (value) for their money.

When I was working at Zurich (then Eagle Star), the Royal Mail Trustees came on a site visit, arriving in a couple of limos at the gates of our Cheltenham offices.

“Who you here for?”

asks the gateman of the chauffeur.

“We are the Royal Mail trustees”,

replies a voice from deep inside the car.

“Alright, the post room’s round the back”,

said the gateman dismissively – the site visit never quite recovered.

I am sure the IGC will smile at the story, which illustrates that how we see our customers and how they see us, are seldom aligned! Here is how the IGC sees Zurich relative to its peers.

Zurich vfm 2

Here is the “harsher” truth of how Zurich customers see their pension

Zurich Vfm

When Zurich looked at service standards, they concluded

… our consumer research clearly shows that the comparators that count most for members were not with other financial services companies but with other sectors which are perceived as having higher standards – retailers and digital companies being cited most as examples. Consumers saw financial services companies generally as falling short of their expectations for service. Zurich, in common with its peers, appears to have work to do

What worries the IGC is that Zurich’s service standards and dashboards pass muster not just within Zurich, but with the employee benefit consultants who recommend Zurich. Like Eagle Star, who alienated the trustees of the Royal Mail all those years ago, Zurich don’t know their customers.

The same can and is said by the IGC about the empowerment of customers to take the decisions they need to take to keep their policies up to date. Zurich are proud of the tools and communications they put in place, but the customers don’t seem to use them or read them. Having seen the efforts Zurich went to , to create a self-service culture among clients, and the pitiful use of self-service, I know the frustration that must be felt by Zurich, the painful truth is that much of what is being asked of customers, is beyond them. Again, the simple conclusion is that this is more than a Zurich issue – but it is an issue for Zurich all the same.

The only areas where Zurich’s view of itself (as a good provider) and the view of its customers align, is in terms of investment and compliance. My cynical view is that these are areas that are the “inner sanctum” of a provider’s competence. It is extremely hard for the general public to question whether value for money is being achieved in areas of competence they know nothing about and against which they have no proper benchmark (you don’t find funds or pension compliance on the high street).

These insights are important and for more than Zurich. For the IGC’s brutal honesty, for their focus on Zurich’s customers and for their refusal to give “the right answer” to their masters, I give Zurich IGC a green.

Effectiveness.

For most of 2017, I was a Zurich customer and I struggled to transfer my legacy pension away from Zurich. I even got as far as tabling a complaint, but gave up against the waves of bureaucracy that came at me. Mine was not a happy experience, I suspect that Allied Dunbar and Eagle Star customers of the eighties and nineties, will have similar stories to tell. To have any chance of getting value out of legacy pensions, you need to be 55 and in my case, it wasn’t till close to my 56th birthday, that I finally got out with only a 1% penalty.

There is a lot of data relating to legacy products , much supporting the assertion that the underlying funds are doing well both in terms of value (outperformance) and efficiency (low transaction costs). There is also much truth in Zurich’s assertion that the process of “moving away” can cause more detriment than staying put (or at least moving to a better fund).

However, I don’t find that Zurich have been particularly effective at managing legacy issues and I don’t find the IGC have been particularly good at helping me! I give Laurie and his team an amber for “effectiveness”.

Engagement

Having criticised some other IGC reports for being over-lavish with stock photos and info graphics (sometimes used as padding), it may seem churlish of me to criticise the Zurich IGC as over-Spartan.

It does however look like one of my reports, before I put it into beautification for clients. Heavy blocks of text appear as they would on a first draft word document , tables are poorly aligned and there is little relief to the eye over 24 pages.

Did the budget not stretch to some proper type-setting and some “modern” presentation?

While I enjoyed the content, I couldn’t help feeling that the IGC had run out of money and support from Zurich. This may be the case, as workplace pensions is clearly not the focus going forward.

It is a cruel irony, that having so much time and money since 2015 , getting engagement with its public, this report fails to engage them back. As a matter of style, there are too many difficult words. Here for instance is the opener to the Chair’s statement

The IGC’s main task is to ascertain whether the members of the pension schemes within their remit receive ‘value for money’from their product provider

The word “ascertain” appears at the start of the main body of the report. Why? “find out is the phrase ordinary members use and understand.

This report contains some of the best work of any, sadly it doesn’t quite engage and I can give it only an amber.

In conclusion

Once again, I am left laughing, crying and applauding all at the same time. Laurie is Hamlet “he was likely , had he been put on, to have proved most royally”. However, the grand design of the IGC is dead and what follows for the Zurich IGC will

necessarily be less.

Alas poor Zurich, I knew it well.

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged IGC, Laurie Edmonds, pensions, Scottish Widows, Zurich | Leave a comment

Life’s a beach for the BlackRock IGC

Posted on April 12, 2018 by henry tapper

black rock stock.PNG

It’s a sure fine of things to come when an IGC report is promoted by a stock photo. This couple appear on most of the IGC reports I have read, I suspect they were scammed out of their pension and now have to make a living looking happy outside of beach huts. Sadly they presage a lazy report and here’s another (and hopefully the last) from BlackRock.

“Lazy” is not a word that I’d ascribe to most IGC reports, most are testaments to the struggles the Committee has with Value for Money, that – like the holy grail – hovers tantalisingly out of reach.

Not so BlackRock who just get out the cheque book, hand the problem over to BlackRock and presumably slope off to the beach hut.

It is important that you, as members, receive good value for the contributions that you and your employers are investing. This is generally referred to as value for money.

The IGC takes this extremely seriously.

Whilst we could technically have performed this exercise ourselves, we believe that it is important for members that this exercise is carried out at the highest level by appropriately qualified professionals and so during 2017 commissioned KPMG, as specialists in this area, to provide an independently assessed review of the overall offering as a follow up to the 2016 assessment.

What the IGC have agreed with KPMG is so anodyne that it is hardly worth my comment. BlackRock achieve a score of 92 out of a potential 100. KPMG have constructed some bizarre universe of rivals to Black Rock, each with its spurious title.

black rock charges

This is an analysis of BlackRock’s charges , the “money” in value for money”. We aren’t told what these charges are (that might be disclosing some client confidentialities). Black Rock clients can feel proud that they are not offering members anything “basic” or “average” but an “above average scheme”.

This is so uncontroversial that it probably ticks every box on KPMG’s risk register. It is busy saying absolutely nothing – very elegantly – kerching!

KPMG’s assessment gives BlackRock 135/150 for investments, despite all stages of the target dated funds underperforming their benchmark during the year (gross of charges). Just why their is underperformance isn’t clear (though it may have something to do with hidden charges which KPMG mention but do not display). The report does display the charges later (still not accounting for the underperformance). As one would expect, slippage trends to zero because BlackRock are a top tracking manager.

The reason for the 15 point loss, is not that the benchmark wasn’t achieved – pretty material in a value calculation but because

BlackRock didn’t quite reach 150 as it doesn’t provide an additional range of LifePath options based on member’s risk appetite (e.g. high risk or low risk).

“Sweet mother of Jesus, I so wanted those extra LifePath options!” – (taken from the blog of the unknown member).

The report meanders on in similar vacuous vein. BlackRock are nearly perfect at retirement, just tripping up because they don’t integrate their drawdown process into the accumulation fund but tip the target date fund into a special drawdown fund. It isn’t clear why this is a bad thing – it clearly trips some internal trigger in the KPMG DC rulebook.

Similarly , BlackRock’s governance is almost perfect except BlackRock don’t tick all KPMG’s boxes

to obtain a score of 100% an IGC must have an agreed training log. The IGC does, however, undertake ad hoc training as and when required and it should be noted that the IGC includes professional trustees. In addition, the IGC reviews member communications on an annual basis, whereas, to get 100%, KPMG felt that continuous review should be undertaken.

For heaven’s sake! Admin is perfect, communication almost perfect, the sun is shining and the waves are twinkling – happy days.

BlackRock’s IGC get out of their deckchairs just long enough to deliver their verdict on BlackRock’s overall value for money

We consider the methodology adopted by KPMG, based on its research of workplace pension providers as useful, covering the most important factors affecting you. Their assessment gives us independent confirmation of our own beliefs that members are provided with good value for money.

I have a good mind to send this to the FCA as an example of an IGC holding the IGC process in contempt. It is simply not good enough, outsourcing governance when you are an independent governance committee is not on. This report gets red – with vermillion streaks for its value for money assessment.

Engagement

I will not labour the point. During the year BlackRock’s workplace pension business was purchased by Aegon. Though the report suggests that the IGC is likely to do another report in 2019, I really can’t see what is the point (unless KPMG are doing a “buy two- get one free” service.

The report is engaging enough not to be downright annoying. It didn’t send me to sleep and it was well written. It was however lacking in anything that I could call “interesting”. I’ll give it an orange which can be peeled in the beach hut.

Effective

You’d have thought, that having outsourced its main function to KPMG, that the IGC could get on with doing some effective work ensuring that policyholders got the best innovation their money could buy.

There is however no evidence that the IGC Committee did very much with BlackRock last year. They express disappointment that they didn’t get the transaction cost numbers from external managers, and there are perfunctory statements on ESG and GDPR. The report fizzles out with some biographies of those around the beach hut and a couple of links to post boxes which members are invited to click if they have anything to say.

I wonder if BlackRock have turned on the “out of office” message. This IGC report is really ineffective, I give it a red for not turning up, it rivals the first Hargreaves Lansdowne report for laziness.

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged AE, Allan Whalley, auto enrolment, BlackRock, IGC, Investment, pensions, Value for Money | 1 Comment

Royal London’s IGC comes of age

Posted on April 11, 2018 by henry tapper

Not the IGC chair!

I’ve been tough on the first two reports from Phil Green, Chair of Royal London IGC. I guess I am a convert third time around, as this report reads well, is stacked with useful information on Royal London’s value for money and gives me confidence that his IGC is effective in what it does.

Ironically, just as I’m getting to like his reports, Phil announces he is leaving and next year’s report will be from a new Chair. I hope that the rest of the committee, some of whom I’ve met, can provide continuity and continue the progress made so far. Phil Green has been the most open of IGC Chairs and I’ve learned from our meetings, thanks Phil and your committee, for helping me understand your job.

Engagement – “no longer a brochure”

My criticism of previous reports has focussed on a lack of separation between the IGC and the Provider, to the point that the report read like a sales brochure. I was, to read Green’s opening remarks, one of several who fed this back. The new report is denuded of the stock photos that pad out so many reports. instead there’s a lot of fact, especially in the appendices, which contain some really good graphs explaining the impact of commission, exit charges, transaction costs on net performance. The charts are clinical and targeted at the expert investor and the IFA.

I’m glad that Green has got the message, I know this work has always been done, but we never saw the outputs; whether for fear of scaring the horses or for confidentiality reasons, this information had been preciously withheld. Now it is in the public domain, I feel happier with the IGC and the Provider. Royal London uses financial advisers, it is not a direct to consumer outfit, consumers who purchase Royal London policies, are likely to have the protection of advisers. It is right that the IGC opens the bonnet.

Gone too is the euphoria with regards the policyholder’s dividend shared by Royal Mutual as a “mutual”. Rather than distribute excess profits to shareholders, Royal Mutual pay it to policyholders. They do of course reward their senior executives handsomely before doing so, so we should not think of those ragged tramps in Royal London adverts as sitting on the Board. The IGC position on this has been toned down, allowing the reader to work out for him or herself, the benefits and shortcomings (there is no Remco) of the Royal London structure.

So in terms of engagement, I have moved my view of the report to Green – some achievement from the Chair!

Is this report effective?

I mentioned in my reviews of Prudential, Old Mutual and Aviva, that these providers were benefiting from the inflows of money from DB pensions. In 2017, £34.25 bn. (ONS) , transferred from institutional to retail fund management. A substantial proportion of this money went to Royal London, though no mention is made of whether this money went to Royal London workplace pensions, or to Royal London’s SIPP platform.

As I’ve argued elsewhere, this matters. The different in governance standards between a workplace pension and a SIPP is that the workplace pension has an IGC in charge and the SIPP is governed by the members and adviser.

Royal London operate Governed Portfolios, an excellent idea, these portfolios bridge the gap between retail and institutional and are, I understand, available on both the Royal London workplace and SIPP platforms. But the price the SIPP customer pays, is dependent on an individual contract with the member, while the workplace price is negotiated at employer level. I am very interested in knowing how this works in practice – and so should the IGC. In short, is the SIPP adding value or detracting value; is the Royal London workplace pension being avoided by the advisers who are supporting the SIPP? What is Royal London’s position on the promotion of the workplace pension for the receipt of transferred money?

At present , the IGC are not engaging with these questions. I think they should be. Perhaps they can consider this as part of the 2018 work. My worry is that while the IGC has been effective in 2017 in reducing legacy charges, strengthening the value money framework and analysing performance, they are not addressing the wider challenges of Royal London’s being a workplace pension provider. Stepping up to the plate on key issues of the moment – such as transfers and decumulation options, should be within Royal London’s scope.

Much as I admire the attention to the detail on issues such as “opt-outs” on auto-enrolment, the details of adviser charging and the analysis of phasing and workplace support, these are the secondary issues. The primary issues going forward will be in helping policyholders convert pots into the retirement income streams people know as “pensions”. This issue is too little covered in the report – I would like to hear more on this next year – and to see Royal London taking a lead.

This progressive and well-funded IGC should be taking the lead – right now I think it still a little too reactive to give it a green- I give it an amber for effectiveness.

Value for money

I’ve said it on each occasion I’ve reviewed an IGC report, if the Chair states that the IGC is giving value for money, what is he comparing his provider to? My criticism of the Royal London IGC approach is that it is too much in its own bubble.

But this is a minor criticism, the sections 5 (charges) and 6 (investments) of the report are excellent. I got the impression that the IGC is connecting with other governance committees within Royal London, and while I wish there was a little more expansive look at rival approaches, I cannot fault the IGC’s understanding of its own provider.

Royal London’s approach to governance is clearly embracing the concept of value for money and you get a strong feeling – reading this report – that the IGC are going with the flow – or may even have created that flow in the first place. This may be Phil Green’s legacy.

I’m happy to give the Royal London IGC a green for their work on value for money and to commend Royal London for the way they are sharing information with their IGC on issues such as transaction costs. There is something very functional about the relationship between provider and IGC which is admirable, it is quite different from the “IGC in the provider’s pocket” impression given elsewhere.

In conclusion

I’m pleased that I can write nice things about this report. I wish the Chair well whatever he does with his time next.

He has given the Royal London IGC a firm base, and this style of report is much more effective than previous styles. I hope that whoever picks up the reins, will take a progressive view on the challenges I set out in my discussion of the effectiveness of this report. I suspect, from the commitment to better understand ESG in 2017, that the willingness is there.

Phil Green and the IGC committee do not put their faces on this report, but their integrity shines through and I really commend it to anyone interested in what is happening at Royal London today. Let’s hope that I can say the same next year.

Posted in pensions | Tagged Drawdown, IGC, pensions, Phil Green, Phil Loney, Royal London | 4 Comments

Prudential’s IGC get it right – a model Chair report.

Posted on April 9, 2018 by henry tapper

To understand why the Prudential’s IGC reports are so good, you need to go to first principals and read the opening paragraphs of their value for money definition (oddly sitting on p40 of the report)

The IGC’s approach to VfM takes account of a range of factors, including charges, performance, service and communications. However, these have been weighted to reflect our view that what ultimately matters is the outcome for members.

On the basis that good financial outcomes that lead to higher retirement income are the most important, we prioritise investment returns and charges as being the most important elements of VfM. We then look at a number of secondary service quality features, placing particular emphasis on the swift and accurate processing of contributions, the level of performance in dealing with complaints, and the quality of communications.

This is the 7th report I have reviewed and the first that specifically mentions retirement income as part of its value for money assessment.

Of course, workplace pensions do not produce retirement income in themselves – (though CDC pensions will); but in terms of their tax treatment, they are expected to replace income lost when people grow too old to work at former levels.

Prudential’s IGC Chair, Lawrence Churchill knows this. He also knows (and states)

The major factor in how much pension you can take out, is how much you put in.

The Prudential have had a bumper year for inflows and I will look at why in this report.

Value for money

The report ends well but it starts well too, clearly setting out the IGC’s view of what is working (and what is not).

Pru scorecard.PNG

Sadly, I cannot reproduce the original, but you you can click on it here. Each segment provides you with its narrative at a click of a mouse. Certainly the most engaging use of digital technology I’ve encountered and representative of the high level of engagement I had from this report (see below).

Wise bird that he is, Churchill then assigns each sector to one of his team. Particularly impressive is the report by John Nestor on investment matters which deals very properly (and in the IGCs own words) with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.

Prudential are retaining their (outcomes based) CPI+3% performance benchmark and this is regularly referenced. Where performance charts are included, they show the performance against relative benchmarks.

Of particular importance to me was the statement on with-profits.

With £1.2bn of funds under the IGC remit being invested in With Profits, we undertook further research into the charges for guarantees and smoothing. This showed that the charges were less than could be supported theoretically. Importantly, we also confirmed that if the charges for guarantees were excluded, all the with-profits funds were charging 1% or less for investment, in line with our reference point for unit linked funds. There are consequently no concerns about the Value for Money members are receiving.

“Prufund”, the commonly used name for the Pru’s With Profits, is mainly used for people transferring out of DB plans. It is recommended by advisers because it provides stability through a smoothed investment return.

In my opinion, the IGC should be considering whether the use of Prufund in this capacity falls within the remit of the IGC. My argument is that while the money is being transferred into non-workplace pensions, the source is workplace, albeit a DB plan.

The statement from Nestor deserves wider distribution to IFAs as it clearly states a methodology that can be used for determining VfM in with-profits. Let’s hope that Prudential can go further and clearly identify the cost of guarantees in all their with-profits products, so other third parties can follow this method.

Prudential have gone so far as to provide underlying performance data for Prufund

Pru fund return

I will be recommending that the Friends of CDC look at the quality and quantity of these disclosures. While CDC is not with-profits, it can learn from Prudential and its IGC.

There are other reports on transaction costs, communication and service levels which are also good. I found the Prudential’s section on Value for Money, outstanding, and the best I have read. I have no difficulty giving it a green (in Pru’s terms – it should get a deep green).

Engagement

There is a sureness of touch in this report, matched only by Phoenix’s (of those I have read so far). The use of appendices is tried and tested, it leaves the main report tightly focussed on the job in hand.

The links are engaging as are the graphics but it is the tone that marks out this report as special.

Engagement leads to confidence and confidence to use, if the IGC can be immediately useful, it is most immediately useful as a way of encouraging people to save and keep saving in pensions.

By this yardstick, I am giving the report a green for engagement, if I was a Pru saver, I would be considering upping my contributions having read it!

Effectiveness

The report doesn’t mince its words; on the massive range of funds that were within the workplace contracts, it has this to say.

Members have been able to invest in 129 different funds. We regard this number as far too high for Workplace Pensions, and see little sign of customer demand or need for many. For example, 71 funds have fewer than 500 members investing and 72 funds have less than £5m invested by workplace pension members. In addition, a number of funds seem to be doing pretty much the same thing.

We believe there is an opportunity for Prudential to simplify its fund range and reduce its costs by reducing the range of funds offered. As set out above, 23 funds will have closed in the last 18 months, simplifying Prudential’s proposition and

delivering better Value for Money for members. But 106 funds still remain. We are challenging Prudential to make much more progress in 2018.

Not only is this a very effective piece of writing, it is indicative of the confidence that the IGC has in itself and in its relationship with the Prudential. I got , throughout this report, a sense of a functioning relationship with Prudential.

Churchill had boasted about the effectiveness of his IGC in the trade press and I was up for taking him on. I won’t, I suspect he would be able to defend his position as he defends the policies of his members.

This is an effective report and I will give it a green for that too, it is the report of an effective IGC.

In conclusion

This is the first report I’ve read this year (I’ve read eight) that I would be proud of having been a part of. Others have been good in parts, but this is good all over and it gets three greens from me.

Consultants, trustees and other IGCs would do well to mark it.

Churchill, right to be proud of himself

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged IGC, John Nestor, Laurence Churchill, pensions, Prudential, Prufund, Retirement, workplace pension | Leave a comment

“Phoenix and the Island of misfit pensions” – how one IGC is making a difference.

Posted on April 8, 2018 by henry tapper

Phoenix – the island of misfit pensions.

It’s not much fun if your pension finds its way to Phoenix Life. It’s the pension equivalent of the Island of Misfit Mascots – the place where Peetie the Sexual Harassment Panda gets pensioned off to in the eponymous South Park episode, (see clip at bottom).

If you bought an NPI, Abbey Life , Brittanic, Pearl or Scottish Mutual pension, and you haven’t transferred somewhere else, then you’ll be in Phoenix. But don’t worry, you are in safe hands, because you have someone to watch over you. That Someone is David Hare, who runs the IGC. He and his team don’t make any bones about it, having a pension with Phoenix isn’t going to be great. But since most of the people in Phoenix aren’t likely to kick up a fuss and will just sit there like “sad pandas”, it’s a good thing that the IGC is a good un.

Although, the Phoenix 2018 IGC report doesn’t talk about it, there are likely to be a lot more Sad Pandas next year, when Standard Aberdeen ships Standard Life off to Phoenix. There will also be another sad panda IGC to be assimilated (Standard life IGC 2018 report here).

I don’t suppose that Standard Life policyholders will want to be referred to as Sad Pandas, they’re a proud lot. But they’ve had a pretty rubbish time at Standard Life recently and many employers would swap the £100 per month they pay for Good to Go for a £0 per month Phoenix charging structure. OK, Phoenix fund performance is pretty dire…

Phoenix 2018 IGC report

But then so is Standard Life’s

Source – Salvus

Phoenix IGC does not have the benefit of top investment consultant Redington, advising them on how rubbish their fund performance is. Instead the IGC tells members how it is.

The top of those two tables is from Phoenix’s IGC report, the message is clear. Right now , Phoenix funds aren’t cutting the muster, aren’t giving value for money and even if you look at the whole table , you won’t find one fund that is consistently delivering above average returns.

Plus you are paying way over the odds for the privilege (another thing that Standard Life Pandas are used to). Pension Bee’s Robin Hood Index shows that in their universe of pensions, Phoenix’s 1% charge is a lot more expensive than the average pension that comes Pension Bee’s way (0.78%). Smart people will take their money away from Phoenix and unless Standard can get some separation from the other sad pandas, smart people will get out of Standard Life.

Except, life is kind of sweet at Phoenix, as the IGC goes on to show!

Value for money (for sad pandas)

The Phoenix IGC don’t make any bones about it. They know that Phoenix policies were too expensive and they are pleased that they’ve got Phoenix to cap charges at 1% pa.

They also know that the kind of people who keep their pensions with Phoenix may have some pension learning difficulties. So they’ve gone out of their way to make their value for money scoring system comprehensible.

Phoenix hare

This remarkably simple system is known as a “balanced scorecard”. I won’t be pursuing the Hare care bunch for plagiarism, but it looks rather like the scoring system my Pension PlayPen uses.

I might quibble with the “3” given to performance – (what’s good about all your funds consistently underperforming?) and I might quibble with giving a 1% pa charge a top rating, but I can’t quibble with the simplicity of presentation. Swap that 96 for 66 and you’d get my value for money score for Phoenix, but heh – I don’t get paid by Phoenix (only kidding).

Actually, the only thing that most Phoenix policyholders should give a stuff about are investment performance and charges – the rest being fluffy – but I am learning to live with the idea of the “member experience” being important to IGCs , especially on the island of misfit pensions.

Within the (limited) scope and resource of the Phoenix IGC, I give it a green for value for money reporting. It is the only report I’ve read so far that benchmarks performance against other providers, it is the only scorecard that I can make sense of , and though the score is highly contentious, I can at least follow the argument.

If I was the Phoenix IGC – I’d be adding streaks of yellow here and there. Phoenix has not even tried to get to grips with the hidden charges in their funds, they have not explored (as Standard does) issues of risk adjusted performance and the scores for customer service and other fluff bear no relation to the feedback I get from policyholders and IFAs who find Phoenix’s service and comms, at best “variable”. There is something to build on for later years and other IGCs would do well to look at this simple method of doing things (and adopt it).

Engaging (sad pandas).

As mentioned above, the best thing to do if you find yourself on the isle of misfit pensions (Phoenix) is to get back to the mainland and aggregate your fund into something better. But while you are staying on the island, isn’t it refreshing to have an IGC that speaks the language of everyday people.

Phoenix hare 2

Hare is a lay-preacher in the Church of Scotland and it shows! My translation of the above is “you should get the f**k out of Phoenix and back to the mainland.

But whether these messages are coded or not, the whole report is a straight response to the concerns that an ordinary policyholder would naturally have, being on the island of misfit pensions and the report is really engaging.

The IGC is never going to win Fintech awards, but I’m pleased to see that this year, they’ve found the hyperlink button and included lots of links to useful information.

I’m giving these guys a Green for engagement – I was engaged – and I’m not even a sad panda!

Effective (for sad pandas)?

I’m struggling to really buy into the wonderful world of the Phoenix IGC as the consumer champ. OK – so a consumer has to be a chump to stay on the island but there remains a huge gap between mainland IGCs and what is going on here.

I’m not convinced by the sections on Environmental, Social and Governance policy.

I’m not convinced that all these policies really give access to all the pension freedoms

I’m not convinced that there is a common investment policy at work to deliver a best in class default fund.

Instead I see an island of misfit pensions with plenty of legacy pensions , none of which make a lot of sense and collectively make for a pretty dire population (of sad pandas).

I don’t diss what has been done, the report is proud of getting 60,000 policyholders cheaper pensions, and it should be, but there is really a lack of ambition here, appropriate to the provider, but in the final scheme of things – unsatisfactory.

Much as I’d like to live in the sunny uplands of David Hare’s perception of the IGC, I can only give it an amber for effectiveness.

In conclusion

Thank goodness for the Phoenix IGC, for its sense of fun, warmth – even adventure. IGCs are supposed to be on the member’s side and though I don’t always feel the IGC has quite broken free of Phoenix, I know they are as independent as they’re going to get;

The report barely mentions the “S” word, but clearly there is as much distance between the approaches of Standard IGC and Phoenix IGC as there’s water in the channel that divides the island from the mainland.

The report barely mentions Standard Life but the proximity of the deal makes thinking about what is coming next – an urgent question! I hope that we get the best of both worlds for Standard and Phoenix policyholders. Let’s have the rigour and resource of the Standard IGC but lets have the clarity and engagement of the Phoenix ICG too!

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged IGC, Peetie the Panda, pensions, Phoenix, South Park, Standard Life | Leave a comment

Aviva’s IGC – a “finger of fudge” – just enough (to give members a treat).

Posted on April 7, 2018 by henry tapper

To fudge or not to fudge?

Aviva’s 2018 IGC report starts well. It’s front cover declares

For members of Aviva’s workplace pension schemes

There is no ambiguity here and , by and large the Aviva report delivers as it sets out. It is a document with members in mind

Where the document is weak, is in its rigour (or lack of it). It appears that Aviva along with a number of other IGCs commissioned Redington to audit them for value for money. I am not entirely clear what the nature of the contract with Redington was, but it appears to have delivered rather too late for its findings to find their way into the Aviva report.

The upshot of the report is detailed by IGC Chair Inder Dhingra on p19

All the key areas of our VfM framework were considered as part of the exercise. At this stage quantitative rather than qualitative factors were considered (so for example the length of communications rather than the quality of the content).

The research shows that Aviva is performing well when compared to a number of its peers in some of the key areas of VfM which we monitor. It is fair to say that there is room for improvement in some other areas

So where are the results? If this research was meant for IGCs and IGCs are “For members of workplace pension schemes”, why aren’t members able to look at Redington’s work and draw their own conclusions?

This cloak and dagger stuff suggests that there were hidden agendas at play and frankly , a little more transparency is called for!

Value for money work

The slippage method for assessing hidden costs in Aviva’s workplace contracts has been used again. It shows that the impact of hidden charges on the pure passive funds being used within the default are negligible (0.01%) but that the costs incurred within Aviva’s diversified asset funds (DAF) are four to five times higher. There’s nothing odd about this , the DAF funds are actively managed and more ambitious; people investing in them are now aware that one of the risks they are taking is that the “hidden” costs aren’t recovered. What’s more concerning is that Aviva aren’t yet able to monitor what’s going on behind the scenes with external managers (other than their default manager – BlackRock).

But it sounds as if the IGC are on Aviva’s case and this is as it should be. The work that the Aviva IGC is doing on “money” continues to be good. But I am less happy with their work on “value”. The report presents us with a number of charts showing performance of key funds but only compares them with other funds within the Aviva range – sometimes the comparison is between one fund with contributions and one without. This is not at all helpful to members.

Whereas Legal and General have simply applied one fund for everyone, Aviva will have a number of default funds depending on the intentions of members. This is as confusing as the graphs, as people will have to enter into the kind of complicated risk/reward trade-offs that even “experts” cannot agree on. The “value” of choice between various default options is questionable as is the value of presenting DAF funds and the single index funds (the default funds).

Although everything is set out simply, I defy anyone reading the “Investment Choices and Returns” section of the IGC report – to establish a default course of action. I would expect Aviva’s complex approach to be challenged by the IGC. If they read Frank Field’s call for a default decumulation fund (as well as a default accumulator) then they can see the contrary argument for simplification of choice.

Is “value for money” really being questioned?

AVIVA product

This very green view of Aviva’s current workplace proposition strikes me as lacking the rigour needed from a “member champion”. The lack of comparisons with other providers (typified by the sloppy section on benchmarking) suggests to me that the IGC isn’t really pushing itself. So I’m giving it an amber for its work on value for money. I’d hope that over the next year, they will address the issues with the member choices I’ve outlined – they should have considerable help in this from external pressures, not least from Government.

Engagement

At no point in the reading of this report, did I lose a sense that this was being written for me (the member). Though I got lost in the investment section, that was down to the deficiencies of the product offering rather than the Chair’s explanation.

I was impressed by the presentation of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) section of the report. It tackled head on some of the big issues – screening of tobaccos stocks – as an example. Aviva have a good track record on voting on ESG, but there remains a problem, that most of the workplace pension investments are outsourced to Black Rock. Perhaps next time, the IGC can look at how Aviva ensure that BlackRock are using ESG in its work. Passive managers have particular responsibility for ESG, they have no other leverage on the companies they invest into , than through governance.

This is the third report from Inder Dhingra and I am getting used to his style, it is friendly and engaging and I feel he is on my side – for a consistently good read, I give the Aviva IGC a green for engagement.

Effectiveness

As mentioned above, I consider the IGC ineffective in holding Aviva to account on the value aspects of Value for Money, but this is in my VFM score.

Elsewhere, the IGC are unrelenting on legacy pensions which they continue to pester Aviva about. There is here some evidence of benchmarking with other providers. The report points out that other providers are doing away with the capital units and exit charges within workplace contacts – even for members who are under 55.

The report notes that Aviva, unlike some of its rivals, is still paying commission to advisers out of legacy charges, despite some providers abolishing such payments (even for pre 2013 contracts. I support the sentiment in the Chair’s opening comments

We will continue to challenge Aviva in areas where we believe that improvements to the member experience can be made. This is not just limited to charges – it means we want to see improvements in member communication and engagement, service and new product features which work for everybody, and not just those members who benefit from modern products.

I suspect that there is a lot less timidity in the IGCs approach than might be suggested in the mildness of the Chair’s style. Aviva’s is an effective IGC but I should remind it that Aviva is not (always) as progressive an insurer as it should be.

But in maintaining its presence in the workplace pension market, offering its APIs to the vast majority of payrolls and managing the differing needs of IFAs and employers, Aviva has been market leading. While I’m not for giving undue pats on the back, I think the IGC could do more to commend Aviva for its good work as an auto-enrolment provider – effective in the workplace.

But – and you knew there would be a but – I see nothing in this report about the use of workplace pensions as an option for transferring members of DB plans. Perhaps someone could put Port Talbot on the IGCs “investigation list” for 2018. Why did the Aviva run Tata Steel workplace pension scheme become the forgotten product and just how is Aviva managing the conflicts between having a non-advised workplace product and a fully advised SIPP platform.

As with the question of a default at retirement, I’d like to see the Aviva IGC being a little more proactive next year.

Despite these cavils, I’ll give the IGC a green for effectiveness this year – but I’ve put a squiggle against its performance – I want to see Aviva taking action over the year and I want it to be on the front foot.

Next year, a finger of fudge may fall foul of the plowman’s sugar tax!

fudge 2

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged Aviva, IGC, Inder dhingra, pensions, workplace Pensions | 1 Comment

Frank Field helps us spend our pensions

Posted on April 4, 2018 by henry tapper

Spend 3.jpg

Here is the main recommendation of Frank Field and the Workplace Pension Select Committee’sfinal report of its inquiry into Pension freedom and choice published today.

We recommend every pension provider offering drawdown is required, by April 2019, to offer a default decumulation pathway suitable for their core customer group. These would be subject to oversight by existing Independent Governance Committees and subject to the same 0.75% charge cap already in place for accumulation in automatic enrolment. People would still be free to choose to invest and spend their own money as they wished. But if they did not make an active choice, they would move into a suitable and regulated default product.

NEST would be included

Rather than impeding a market that is hardly functioning well, evidence from automatic enrolment suggests that NEST may drive better retirement outcomes by forcing other providers to offer greater value or risk savers switching over to NEST to get a better retirement deal.

Pension Passports should be issued

Trials show that single page pension passports increase consumer engagement with pensions options. We recommend that pension providers are required to issue them.

Providers be required to participate in the Pension Dashboard project

We recommend that all pension providers are mandated to provide necessary information to the pensions dashboard, with a staged timetable to enable smaller legacy defined benefit schemes time to comply.

The dashboard would be a single Government sponsored dashboard and be funded by an industry levy from April 2019.

Taking pension spending away from advisers

Frank Field and the Work and Pensions Select Committee are clearly pushing at an open door. The Government want a more engaged public but they want smart decision making more.

The trouble is that there’s no evidence that the “engaged” take smart decisions. If 53% of those who transferred £34.25bn out of DB schemes are reckoned to have got it wrong (FCA sampling) and if these were advised, then it’s small wonder that there’s a crisis in confidence in retail financial services. The crisis begins and ends with the FCA.

Setting up default decumulation pathways for the non-advised and non-engaged seems a good thing, so long as the default is demonstratively better than the annuity default that preceded pension freedoms.

Having just concluded a review of CDC, where W&P gave the collective approach a big tick, it’s not hard to see what Field & Co would like the default decumulator being.

The rest of the recommendations in the paper are a series of proposals to disintermediate. The pensions dashboard is out of the reach of advisers, being in Field’s vision – a Government project; the midlife MOT , something that might have involved advisers , is dismissed

The introduction of mid-life MOTs should not be mistaken for something likely to have a transformative effect on consumer behaviour.

Where Field does talk of advice it is in the lack of its take up

Most people who have exercised pension freedoms have not, however, taken up financial advice. The PLSA found that 32% of individuals accessing their pots under pension freedoms paid for regulated financial advice. The FCA found that the proportion of drawdown products bought without advice has risen from 5% before the introduction of pension freedoms to 30% afterwards. 63% of all annuity sales in the year to September 2016 were made to non-advised customers

and when he listens to those who have contributed to his Pension Freedoms review, he hears only the negatives

Others witness warned,…,that the “advice gap”, whereby consumers are unable to get advice at a price they are willing to pay, needs to be tackled.131 Advice is perceived as expensive, though as the FCA found that 51% of people would not be prepared to pay for advice at any price, it is not the only barrier. A widespread lack of trust in financial advisers, and a lack of engagement with pensions contribute to this effect. Advisers may also turn away potential clients if advising them is not likely to be profitable

spend 2

Advisers are likely to be offended by this talk, but may be even more offended by the suggestion that robo-advice be put to the test

We recommend the FCA conduct and publish a review comparing consumer outcomes from face-to-face and automated advice

All in all, this paper comes down firmly on the side of default solutions governed by charge caps and against regulated financial advice. It promotes technology solutions and while it does not mention CDC, it clearly has collective solutions in mind when it talks of empowering NEST.

After all, it was Frank Field who said a recent enquiry session

“NEST should have been CDC from the start”.

Posted in advice gap, auto-enrolment, Big Government, pensions | Tagged CDC, Frank Field, Mid life MOT, NEST, pensions, Pensions Dashboard, Work and Pensions Selecto Comittee | 2 Comments

What I’ll be looking for from the 2018 IGC chair statements

Posted on April 4, 2018 by henry tapper

2018 and all that

It’s IGC reporting season again and I’ll be looking to have answers to four questions this year. So here are my questions (more hope than expectation).

If you’re making a value for money, what is your value for money (VFM) benchmark?
What has your provider done to improve its performance in terms of “Environment, Social and Governance” practice (ESG)?
What innovation has your provider shown in helping members/policyholders to better outcomes in retirement?
What have the IGCs been doing to ensure that people taking CETVs from occupational schemes are getting a good deal?

Value for Money

I’m looking for a more strenuous approach to value for money which asks searching questions of providers with a weather eye to what the competition is getting up to. I suspect this was what the Office of Fair Trading were after when they conceded they would not refer the insurers to the CMA (subject to their operating effective IGCs).

By way of explanation, we have become used to the platitude from the Chair “In my opinion xyz are providing you with value for money”, but I have yet to see one provider offer a league table of other providers compared on the same basis. Not all providers can be offering the same value for money on their workplace pensions, some must have superior investment propositions, others a less engaging member journey – and we know that the costs of different providers can differ radically.

Innovation in retirement

Innovation is in short supply among workplace pension providers. There has been lip-service paid to innovation in retirement outcomes, but nothing substantive. The deferred annuity solutions put forward by Alliance Bernstein and others have been adopted by one or two master trusts. People’s has put in place a partnership with LV to offer non-advised drawdown, but for the most part, providers continue to stand behind the mantra “we offer all the freedoms”.

CDC is not a natural fit with a GPP but it may be an option for Master Trusts to convert to. Since the acquisition of the Zurich proposition by Scottish Widows, Widows has announced it will launch a master trust (using Zurich’s existing model). The same is happening at Phoenix, which can now boast the Standard Life Master Trust.If not CDC -what? Just what are the IGCs doing to help individual savers who cannot or will not take advice, solve the nastiest hardest problem in finance

The time for sitting on the fence on this – is coming to an end. In short, CDC is an option for all the major workplace pension providers and I hope that at least some of the IGCs will tip their hat to what is happening at Royal Mail.

Well they don’t. No workplace pension – trust or contract based, has yet taken a position on CDC, though in private many providers have done all they can to disrupt its progress.

ESG

The IGCs should (by now) have cottoned on to this and be looking at what their asset managers are doing as voters and in their corporate citizenship themselves. I would like to see IGCs holding the likes of Phil Loney’s feet to the fire (Royal London has no Remuneration Committee for Phil to answer to). IGCs should act as consumer champs – where they feel their own providers governance structures are lacking!

If the providers want to know what they were saved from, they should take a look at the kicking the leading investment consultants are taking from the Competition and Markets Authority right now.There is consensus; most people agree that a fund that has a positive stance to environmental issues, looks for social purpose and demands good governance in companies it invests in, will win out over time over one that doesn’t.

The major passive players, State Street, BlackRock, LGIM and perhaps UBS (Nest) have the biggest part to play in this. Not only are they the biggest owners of stock, but they have no way of exercising leverage over companies, other than to vote at AGMs.This is particularly true of mutual and of private companies where the public scrutiny of internal behaviours is weakest

CETVs

In 2017, £34.25bn was transferred out of Defined Benefit pension schemes into defined contribution pension arrangements. Some of this money went to old style personal pensions (what the FCA call “non-workplace”), most of it appears to have gone onto SIPP platforms (many of which are with insured providers) and a proportion has gone into workplace pensions.

I suspect that when the numbers are finally produced, the amount going into workplace pensions will be insignificant. But it’s the workplace pensions that offer ordinary people the best non-advised options. Many of these workplace pensions even offer the facility of adviser charging. My experience working with BSPS members, was that hardly any of them even knew that you could transfer into workplace pensions. The Tata Steel plan with Aviva was almost hidden from sight.

IGCs should be asking whether they should, in 2018, be ensuring that workplace pensions are being promoted (for those who have them) as a choice. In my view, most of the people who I met in Port Talbot, had been led by the nose into over-engineered, over-priced and quite unsuitable SIPPs when – assuming they should have taken their transfer in the first place – they should have gone into available workplace pensions.

What shape are the IGCs in?

This year will see two of the major IGCs subsumed into others. Standard and Phoenix are chaired by Rene Poisson and David Hare respectively. Hare has in previous years done an outstanding job of pushing Phoenix into places you would not expect a closed-book insurer to go. Poisson has a number of other positions, most importantly as a Trustee of USS, I hope that the merger of the two IGCs sees a continuation of the Phoenix style.

The merger of Scottish Widows and Zurich’s proposition should leave Scottish Widows with the upper hand. I have relented this year on State Street who appear to have moved on from the bad old days and I should relent on Babloo Ramamurthy, IGC chair at Scottish Widows. The performance of the Zurich IGC has been weak, simply outsourcing its work to consultants to tell it what to say about your provider is no good. Zurich’s IGC was weak with its provider on the introduction of the 1% cap on transfers. Although I dislike the conflict between Babloo’s roles at B&CE and Widows, he has been effective at both and I hope he has a combined role going forward.

One IGC’s report that I’ll be reading with particular interest is Aegon’s. Aegon’s behaviour towards Pensions Bee was frankly appalling. I will be interested to see what role (if any) Ian Pittaway and his IGC took in allowing the Pension Bee people go. Pension Bee’s Tobin Hood index should be referenced by the providers , if only to gloat over the improved performance of insurers using Origo, over the master trusts and single employer schemes using TPAs -who don’t (Peoples Pension excluded).

Why does this matter?

The IGCs are about the only means ordinary savers have to get questions answered by their providers. They fulfil the role of trustees of occupational schemes (including master trusts) as being member champions.

In the past. I have focussed on their role as providers of help to employers struggling to introduce auto-enrolment. Some providers have got it right (Aviva) and continued to offer themselves to smaller employers, some of got it wrong (Legal & General) and have had to withdraw.

The focus of the decision for employers and individuals is changing. It’s now less of a question of what should I buy, as what should I keep. Already more employers are using the Pension PlayPen to rate their pension than to implement one.

If we are to have a functional workplace pension market, the IGCs must play a muscular and relevant part. They should provide information on their providers performance, on their attitude to developments among their asset managers and they should be championing the cause of members, where things go wrong – or where providers are slow to pick up on new developments.

Organisations such as Share Action now take an active interest in the performance of IGCs against the metrics laid out in this article. We need competitive IGCs to provide a real test for the master trusts, to hold providers feet to the fire and to ensure that consumers – the people investing in workplace GPPs get a proper deal

Posted in IGC, pensions | Tagged auto enrolment, CDC, CETV, ESG, IGC, pensions, workplace Pensions | 2 Comments

Is CDC “Flat World” – or “Flat Earth”?

Posted on April 3, 2018 by henry tapper

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is an international best-selling book by Thomas L. Friedman that analyzes globalization

The Flat Earth model is an archaic conception of Earth’s shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography – (both Wikipedia)

The distinction between Flat World and Flat Earth suggests how easily a simple idea can have binary engagement. CDC is much the same – I see CDC as progressive and a means of binding society together, John Ralfe sees CDC (and me) as bogus. Trump has proved that the insistence of the globalisation lobby can be checked and while I’d stop short of likening John to Donald, I suspect that both of them have an important role in keeping the world honest.

The point of this article is to explain that while it is fun to ridicule CDC, it is impossible to ignore it, like globalisation , collectivisation is not going away!

The recent conversion of St Guy of Opperman to CDC – suggests that the £2bn uplift in the Royal Mail share price, resulting from the CDC settlement – is a market indicator – even he could not ignore.

Flat earth

The Price of Freedom

No one has costed “freedom and choice”. The Treasury tried in their various impact assessments. If they had gone to consultation over the changes in the tax laws on the payment of DC pots, we (as Friends of CDC) would have pointed out

That paying a wage for life is difficult and requires scale
That managing a wage for life with any certainty – as an individual – requires an annuity

It would not have been enough for us just to have said this, Kenny Tindall asked on Twitter yesterday what proof there was that CDC provided more certain pension outcomes and I’ll start by showing how expensive it is to manage a typical drawdown

Breakdown of costs

The model above is only one of a number knocking about, but it fairly represents the kind of costs you can expect to pay for an efficient drawdown product.

Paying 0.5% of your fund for financial advice – is akin to paying somebody to look after your car, you could do it yourself, but most people will pay a mechanic.

Investment Management costs are what you pay upfront to people to manage your money, typically in a fund. They’re business as usual costs – the price of fuel. They do of course come down where a fund grows in size as is evidenced from this article on Prufund .

Platform fees are payable to those who manage the technology and in car maintenance terms , they represent routine maintenance charges – including MOTs!

Finally there are the occasional costs of running a cost which include the cost of parts when things break and the cost of labour to fit the new parts. As always in these things, these costs are underestimated as unknown and could be called the hidden costs of running a car or fund

The price of freedom, in this model is 1.65% of the amount invested, a considerable amount compared with the “rule of thumb” 4%pa drawdown.

Put simply , for most people, the price of freedom is a high price; it is too high to make drawdown sustainable for most people. Drawdown is not a mass market solution because even for 1.65% pa- you are unlikely to get sufficient value to meet your need for a satisfactory income that lasts as long as you do.

So simply in terms of defining pensions freedoms in terms of an alternative, there is no mass market alternative to the discredited annuity.

The three arguments for more certain collective outcomes

A collective approach can do three things

It can bring down the cost of pension management by disintermediating advisory fund management , platform and hidden (transactional) costs .
It can improve value by investing in more appropriate assets (for the purpose of paying a wage for life)
It can manage the problem we have of not knowing when we are going to die.

These are the three reasons I give Kenny Tindall for why CDC gives more certain outcomes. But I am aware that so far- I have only dealt with “1”.

Collectives add value

Collectives aren’t just about reducing the impact of costs and charges, they add value in their own way.

It’s long been known that pension schemes can take certain kinds of risks , other schemes cannot – and be rewarded for those risks. Taken together those risks give rise to an “illiquidity premium”, a measurable amount of out-performance resulting from a scheme investing in long-term illiquid assets which give favourable long-term returns,

However, the illiquidity premium has lately been squandered – because pension schemes of all types have chose to de-risk rather than take a long-term view. Exponents of de-risking point out that there are other risks that their “de-risking” avoid that make missing out on the illiquidity premium worthwhile. That may be the case if DC plans are forced to de-risk prior to buying an annuity and if DB plans are put on a similar “glide path to buy-out. But handing over your assets to an insurance company for the payment of an annuity was never an essential end-game! I find myself in agreement with Ed Truell who writes in the FT

“As a co-founder of Pension Insurance Corp, I know better than most the strictures of an insurance regime that is ill-suited to the long-term nature of pension asset and liability management.”

He added that insurance was an expensive way to secure pension liabilities when employers ought to be devoting their attention elsewhere.

“British companies need to be freed up from their legacy liabilities to invest in their businesses, restore productivity and continue to boost employment and growth,” .

The original point of running a pension scheme was to keep it going for future members.

CDC schemes have the opportunity to restate that original aim and avoid de-risking altogether, they can take a long-term view and invest in assets that give them an illiquidity premium. They do not have to sell these assets to pay pensions (as has to happen in the individual DC model). They can rely on future contributions and income from existing assets to meet the target pensions.

Certainty of income from longevity pooling

The third and most obvious advantage of a CDC scheme is that it can insure longevity risk from within its pool of members. As Abraham puts it in his recent book,

Instead of having to rely on super-outperformance or an outsourced insurer (either traditional insurance or capital market solutions), a CDC scheme relies on pooling the mortality experience of all members, those who die soonest within the scheme subsidise the pensions of those who live long.

This process is abhorred by libertarians who consider any form of cross-subsidy, the spawn of the devil. But it should be pointed out that this kind of social insurance is the basis of all mutual movements, there is a solidarity between people based on our fundamental insecurity about our capacity to survive.

We all know that there is a general underestimation of how long we live and this appears to be particularly the case among people who live longest. Ironically, those who stand to gain most from guaranteed pensions are those who are most wealthy. These wealthy people are most likely to leave a longevity pool – making things that much the easier for those with genuine short-life expectancy!

This is why I think CDC schemes should offer the door to all members who want to transfer out, including those who are receiving pensions, for every pensioner who lives on the grounds of ill-health, there will be twice that many leaving for reasons or wealth (typically inheritable wealth).

CDC will I am sure, benefit from it being spurned by those wealthy enough to live forever.

Flat world or flat earth?

I hope in this article, I have put up a reasonable argument for considering CDC as a more certain source of income in retirement than either drawdown or annuity purchase. I’m aware that this article is not splattered with numbers, I’ll leave that for my actuarial colleagues.

I hope too, that I am seen to be talking sense, and that through reading this far, you have inched closer to the “CDC is “flat world” – rather than “flat earth” thinking”.

Flat earth thinking

Posted in pensions | Tagged CDC, Costs and charges, Flat world, illiquidity, Lat earth, pensions, platform | 3 Comments

USS – thoughts from off the campus

Posted on April 1, 2018 by henry tapper

Cambridge colleges.jpg

The situation at USS is like a medieval siege, where both sides are at Parlez. The threat of violent action has not gone away, but the talking holds some hope of a resolution.

Since the nuances of those talks are too intricate for this blog, I will try to hold your interest with some general thoughts, based on my being a parent of a second year undergrad, a friend of a few who are on strike and a tax-payer. This doesn’t make me unique, but I have followed what has gone on so far, closely enough to have some opinions.

The current position.

Having rejected the ACAS offer of March 12th, the UCU are awaiting something better, UUK are conditionally agreeing to go back to the table

‘Employers have indicated their support for this proposal, however, this is conditional on the suspension of industrial action.’ universitiesuk.ac.uk/news/Pages/USS-update.aspx …

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, there are aspects of the 12th March agreement which are very unpalatable to university teachers, a 2.5% cap on pension increases, a lower accrual rate and a lowering of the pensionable earnings on which pension are accrued.

But the UUK offer is a long way from the 100% individual DC offer it started with, and the UUK are putting a lot of store in the creation of a long term pension ACAS, in the shape of a standing committee looking at funding issues.

There does not appear to be sufficient trust between the sides for the UCU to call off the threat of strike actions, both sides to put matters in the hands of a supposedly independent committee or for social media to be rid of the #UUS hashtag!

Ways forward

UUK has mentioned that CDC could be a solution but it hasn’t proved to be (yet). Many lecturers (rightly) see CDC as an upgraded version of DC and not a substitute for what they went on strike for. The covenant between UCU members and UUK includes a DB promise (in their opinion).

My colleague, Hilary Salt, who advises UCU , has publicly floated the idea of a “negative pledge” as an innovative solution. Such a pledge would involve some of the University assets being pledged , not as “contingent assets” but as “unmortgageable” and therefore potentially available to USS in a dire calamity.

This approach has merit in that addresses the Pensions Regulator’s fundamental concern with the USS’ current funding position – that should it deteriorate, there is no long-stop but the PPF.

It seems most likely that any resolution to the long-term issues that have brought both sides to such conflict , must involve the Pensions Regulator, which guards the interests of the PPF and to some extent the tax-payer (the other recourse is of course higher tuition fees).

Personally, I find the idea that even under a last man standing scheme, that our universities could go bust because of pension promises, absurd. The UUK has boxed itself into a corner in projecting itself as a commercial entity, quite clearly – universities are different.

Which is why I support university teachers being paid differently – a higher proportion in deferred pay, a lower proportion in “pay at risk” or bonus. As Rebecca Leach has pointed out on twitter, the bonus culture for academics doesn’t stretch much further than likes on twitter.

The flattening of all pay negotiations into overall reward, with pensions simply regarded as a cash flow item, entirely ignores their very real differences in career expectations and aspirations.

Posted in pensions | Tagged Easter, pensions, USS, UUK | 2 Comments

DIY Pension Diagnostics – (a data dream)

Posted on March 31, 2018 by henry tapper

DIY pension diagnostics

Most of us know how hard it is to see a Doctor these days, and how easy it is to get medical help online. Most people I know will consult the internet rather before ringing the surgery.

If only we could say the same for pension advice. I am sick of being told that I should seek independent financial advice , every time I want to know about my workplace pension. It’s such a cop-out. Even The Pensions Advisory Service have to trot this line out, as soon as the question “what should I do?” is asked.

If advice is about giving someone a definitive course of action, then I’m all for it. But you won’t get a recommendation from a qualified adviser without his getting to know you through a “full fact find” and after you’ve signed terms of business and a fee agreement

This is all very well when you are making a life changing decision, but what if you just want to have a look at the funds you’ve invested in , or move your pension pots together, why can’t you do a job for yourself on-line without the computer saying “no”?

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

I’m always surprised by the phrase. I’m equally surprised when I’m told that I shouldn’t be comparing one kind of pension with another because I might not spot a guaranteed annuity rate lurking in the bath- or a with-profits guarantee – or some kind of terminal bonus. If I’ve got one of these lovely things coming my way, I think the baby should be shaking its rattle at me, it shouldn’t be hard for these outliers to be flagged.]

Experts tell me that these outliers need an IFA to spot, I say don’t be so silly.

Putting aside the oddities, I’m going to move on to the next reason I’m told i can’t look at my pensions without an IFA. This is because I’d be comparing apples with pears. This is why Money Supermarket, Go Compare and Comparethemarket don’t have a pension comparison site. They have all been warned off because only someone with a degree in pension science can compare one fund with another.

Again babies and bathwater are involved, it seems you can’t put all your babies in the same bath. This is even more silly, I want a big bath for all my babies! The problem is that some bath suppliers are rather less happy about losing their babies than others. Pension Bee run a rather amusing “Robin Hood Index” (google it) which tells you which providers let you take your babies and which insist on you using their bath!

So how do we get to help ourselves with our pensions?

The Government’s big idea is to create a pensions dashboard. The original idea was that there would be lots of independent dashboards which could compete against each other, but right now – we look like we are heading for one big dashboard, a sort of dashboard-NEST,

The trouble is that rather like Pensions Wise (the Government’s pension guidance service) the dashboard won’t tell you what to do, it will just tell you the pension equivalent of how much fuel you’ve got and when you are likely to get to your destination. All the real fun stuff – like “is my pension any good” – is far too difficult for a Government website. When Governments try to nationalise guidance or dashboards, you can be pretty sure they will mess up.

So how could we work out what’s hot and what’s not in our “pension portfolio”. Well the other big idea in the Government’s locker is “value for money” and this is a lot more exciting – not least because the DWP haven’t yet tired to nationalise it. she

The idea behind value for money is that it is just a score, say a score between one and a hundred. The score would allow you to compare baby A with baby B and even allow you to compare the bath and the bathwater. If value for money ratings got off the ground, you’d be able to compare NEST with a QROPS, a SIPP with a Stakeholder, you’d even be able to compare the workplace pension your employer chose, with all the workplace pensions he/she didn’t.

In case this sounds a little utopian, then let me give you some reassurance. Achieving universal value for money ratings only requires two things. A proper measure of value and a proper measure for money. Value can be measured by the outcome of the investment and money is what you pay to get that outcome. An ideal outcome would involve you paying nothing and getting a shed-load more money back than you ever put that, sadly some people are looking forward to lousy outcomes which will cost them a fortune.

What is needed to achieve this very simple scoring system is rather harder to achieve than to explain. No one knows the outcome of their pension saving till the day the money runs out (hopefully when you know longer need your pension). Nobody knows how much you are paying, unless you can get to all the hidden costs and charges your pension providers don’t talk about.

But help is at hand. The price comparison sites are beginning to get excited about pensions because they can see how “value for money” ratings could make pensions as easy to compare as – well baths and bathwater and investments as easy to move around as babies.

If we can put all the pension experts back in their box and silence their silly quibbles about outliers and apples and pears, then we can get on with collecting all the data to compare all the funds and put them into league tables that show us what value they’re giving , what they’re costing and what value we’ll get for our money.

When we’ve managed to do this – and we’re beginning to think we can actually do it – then you, your employer and your colleagues can start helping themselves, precisely as they do when they feel a little poorly.

Posted in Payroll, pensions | Tagged CIPP, Payroll, pensions, professional pensions, reward, The Pensions Regulator | 1 Comment

Why consumers need better choices; (explaining CDC to a merchant banker)

Posted on March 30, 2018 by henry tapper

My business card bottom left – to remind me I was there!

Yesterday I met a merchant banker, I didn’t know that’s what he was at the time , but he’s subsequently been identified as one by Con Keating, who knows about these things.

We sat in his office which looked down on the Bank of England. I thought I could wave at Mark Carney and I suspect he would have waved back, it seems pretty clubby in these corridors of power.

At the end of our meeting, we agreed that I would write a brief explanation of what I wanted to change in pensions , especially with regards the choices ordinary people have to spend their pension pot(s).

This is what I propose to send to him, though I may get some comments from you that change my mind!

Why consumers need better pension choices

It’s assumed that since April 2015, consumers are spoiled for choice – having been granted pension freedoms by George Osborne. It’s true that there is now more choice than in the days when most people had to buy an annuity with their pension pot(s) but the new choices are all hard and there’s no obvious choice that is best – I would like to put that right and so would all Friends of CDC. We would like people with pots of retirement savings, being able to exchange them for a non guaranteed “wage for life” pension delivered from a CDC scheme.

Until recently, the fate of the personal pension was a relatively low policy priority. Relative to the State Pension and occupational pensions, personal pensions didn’t really matter.

That is changing for three reasons, firstly, the first wave of unit-linked savers are now hitting retirement with their share of the £400bn in non-workplace pensions. These lifetime DC savers will become increasingly important as their ranks are swelled by people taking transfers out of DB schemes. As recently as 2014, only £5bn switched to personal pensions but in 2017 over £34bn passed across.

The second reason is that those people who had historically accrued DB benefits – the mass affluent employees of large employers, are now building up DC pots instead.

The third reason is that 10m new savers are building up DC pots in workplace pensions as a result of auto-enrolment. The scale of contributions per capita is small, but this will increase by a factor of four over the next 13 months as auto=enrolment contributions phase in.

So from being a minor issue, the fate of our DC pensions – will become a major issue and before it does so, policy makers should be clear that there is a clean and efficient way to spend these pension savings, pots must be capable of buying pensions, if the policy aims of pension tax-subsidies are to be achieved. Put bluntly the public purse has paid to ensure that future generations are not a burden on the state and the public purse should get value for money.

And at present, the pension system is providing variable value for the money that is in it. Money accumulating in workplace pensions is now well supervised, efficiently managed and not a problem. However much of the money in non-workplace pensions is not so well managed and is often subject to fee gouging from complex product structures which are so untransparant as to be dangerous.

Worse, the current choices for people choosing to spend their savings are quite inadequate. Advice on drawdown is hard to find, RDR has reduced adviser numbers to around 25,000 and they are purposed for wealthy clients. The man on the Clapham Omnibus is unlikely to access regulated advice and instead is used “unadvised drawdown products”, the FCA has expressed concern about how these products are used.

Concern is over people drawing down too fast and risking running out of money and those not drawing down fast enough, and denying themselves the fruits of their saving.

We are in a non-functional market where annuities are all but ignored without any natural successor to the annuity emerging.

Into this market, we need a new choice, one that takes on the nastiest, hardest problem in finance and pays people a wage for life, with a minimum of decision making needed from the pension owner.

CDC provides a better choice

There are no CDC schemes in this country yet, though yesterday, the CWU announced that more than 90% of its members employed by the Royal Mail, voted for a CDC solution over either a pure DC arrangement of a DB cash balance plan. They voted for a “wage for life” provided for them by their employer through a contribution fixed as a percentage of their salary. The contribution has been fixed at a level that is expected to provide (together with a fixed employee contribution) a wage for life targeted at around 1/80th career average earnings with CPI inflation linking to that wage.

This model is comparable to a DB scheme – though it is clearly only offering a guarantee on the contribution. For it to work, it will have to deliver to the target pensions and be transparent about how it does so (and why it fails to deliver- when a target isn’t hit). The critical success factor will be in maintaining trust between the CDC scheme managers and the beneficiaries of their management.

The Friends of CDC believe that there is scope among the many pension experts in Britain, to run a number of CDC schemes in a very efficient way with the schemes benefiting from institutional management of patient capital, low investment administration and record keeping costs, high quality governance, good member communications and a sound system of distribution based on well-established actuarial principles.

The greatest strength of such a system is that it is confident in its skin and gives people the right to walk away with a transfer value whether they are saving through the scheme or spending their pension.

How a transfer value is calculated is up to each scheme. Some schemes will use a money purchase underpin , with notional unitisation- some will calculate transfer values on a discounted cash flow basis (as they are calculated for DB schemes). It would seem logical for schemes like Royal Mail to operate on the latter basis and CDC schemes that are funded by transfer from other arrangements to grant transfers (and pensions) based on the timing and incidence of contributions received. Some schemes may operate on both basis (operating a money purchase underpin for voluntary contributions and a discounted cash flow CETV where there is a salary related target pension on offer.

Detail such as this, is currently being discussed by Royal Mail and the DWP, who have expressed an interest in facilitating a scheme for the postal workers with options for other types of CDC scheme to emerge over time. We do not know how long it will take to write these regulations or how much scope they will offer. However, there is considerable expertise from lawyers, actuaries, investment managers and retail advisers available to the DWP policy team involved and there is quiet confidence that rules will be available sufficient for the CWU to recommend it to their members.

Moving the market

What is needed is for there to be second movers. NEST are an obvious candidate by dint of size and access to resource, but so are many of the large single occupational schemes with more mature membership and a commercial reason for ensuring members have a default decumulation option which allows them to retire in confidence. Other workplace pensions are showing interest in the CDC model though the commercial or societal imperative for a “DC upgrade” is not so compelling,

In the opinion of the Friends of CDC, there is urgent need for an improvement in the options open to consumers with DC pots – especially with pots that need to be spent.

The biggest market for CDC may not be with large employers , but with the millions of disassociated savers with non-workplace pension pots which need a better home than they have today. Aggregating these pots together to buy a decent wage for life as rights in a CDC scheme , could and should become BAU for those struggling with freedom and choice.

We are not that far from achieving this vision of CDC. With the help of senior merchant bankers – we might just get this over the line!

Looking down on the Bank of England!

Posted in CDC, pensions | Tagged Bank of England, CDC, CETV, FCA, Merchant Banks, pensions | 7 Comments

Don’t blame advisers for non-advised drawdown!

Posted on March 29, 2018 by henry tapper

dont-blame-information-overload-for-your-tiny-attention-span-blame-yourself0

“Savers accessing the burgeoning non-advised drawdown market are failing to engage with information, investing in unsuitable investments and risking running out of money in retirement, an FCA probe has found”. – John Greenwood – Corporate Adviser.

You can read the FCA probe –

Non-advised drawdown pension sales review: summary of findings

here!

Should anyone be surprised there is a burgeoning problem?

It may sound obvious, but we have around 25,000 advisers in this country and around 450,000 people arriving at retirement each year. We do not have enough advisers so most people are facing the nastiest hardest problem in finance, with little more than a helpline to their DC provider.

We should not be surprised that people are not shopping around – where is the shop?
We should not be surprised that people are taking their “pension commencement lump sum” and rolling up the rest of their money without much engagement – what is there to engage with?
While I “take comfort” that pension providers are meeting their obligations to their policyholders/members – I find little evidence of any innovation and can’t see what remedies the FCA have in mind for their current retirement outcomes review.

Let’s be clear about this. There is no shop for those who want to explore their options to shop around in. Money Supermarket, Go Compare and Compare the Market are staying away from all this with good reason. This is a nest of vipers.

So far, we have seen a benign market since we switched our outlook from pensions to pots, but there is a gathering consensus that so far, investors have got luck- this article- again in Corporate Adviser last week, – is well worth a read. Also worth a read is the FCA/tPR joint paper on a strategic approach to the retirement income sector.

There is nobody prepared to stick their head above the parapet and tell ordinary people how to go about turning the non-cash element of their pension pot into income. Abraham Okusanya is teaching advisers but this is a brutally hard thing to do.

And the FCA will struggle to find any kind of innovation , since the “thousand flowers that were sprouting in 2015” had a massive dose of DDT sprayed over them when the Government cancelled project Defined Ambition in 2015.

In short – there is a market failure happening today

The £34.25bn that has transferred out of DB into DC – is part of this market failure

The 10m new recruits to DC saving – are also part of this market failure.

Even those in well-heeled properly funded occupational DC schemes are part of this market failure.

The DC world is “all dressed up with nowhere to go”. As in Australia, so in the UK, the mature end of the DC market has spurned “annuities for freedoms” but should now be singing “is that all there is?”.

And you laugh at collective solutions?

The guys who spend their time at the FCA’s Canary Wharf offices, dissing CDC – the SIPP providers, those operating commoditised fund platforms, the managers of large advisory groups and those with vertically integrated decumulation propositions – I hear you laughter!

I hear your dismissal of collective DC and the scheme pensions it can offer. I hear your claims that we will find a way to provide each individual with a “default decumulation pathway” and I see you running around like so many Mr Micawbers – convinced that something will turn up.

the improvident Micawber

But nothing is turning up.

Meanwhile , the FCA watch on , as the individual market fails to innovate and more and more people stop saving, draw cash and wait for the pension to turn up.

But nothing is turning up.

If all that was coming up to retirement – were diddy little DC pots accumulated from the first five years of Auto-Enrolment, I would not be worried. But many people who are retiring today, are doing so with great big pots. Some have been saving in DC all their lives, some have transferred DB savings into a DC pot and some people have been feather-bedded by paternalistic employers who have been paying into their DC plans at substantial rates.

For these people, nothing is turning up.

We urgently need a way of converting pots back into pensions. We have rejected the annuity and we can’t get our heads round unadvised drawdown. There aren’t enough advisers to go round and people are uncomfortable paying advisory fees out of smallish pots. Smallish pots used to mean less than £150k but with the glut of CETVs with an average pot size of £450k, I suspect that the bar for advised drawdown now sits rather higher.

The FCA should be aware that the DWP are now consulting with the CWU and Royal Mail to get rules in place which will allow 145,000 Royal Mail staff to de-cumulate their DC savings as scheme pensions.

They should also be aware of the DWP’s aim to make the rules they are creating , available to other organisations who could offer scheme pensions from DC pots.

There is – within the scope of what has been openly discussed at Work and Pensions Select Committees, at forums of the Friends of CDC and in the numerous private meetings with the DWP I’ve attended, the capacity to offer a “wage for life” solution to those millions of people who have , are or will reach the end of their retirement savings.

Don’t blame advisers for non-advised drawdown

It is not up to advisers to offer pro-bono consultancy to Government on non-advised drawdown. Nor is it the advisers fault that there are not enough of them to go round. Nor is it the advisers fault that they are busy advising those with pots of more than half a million pounds and leaving those with smaller pots to their own devices.

Nor is it the fault of Go Compare, Money Supermarket or Compare the Market that they haven’t set up pension shops.

The market failure that the FCA are hinting at, and will explore more deeply (I hope) in the Retirement Outcomes Review proposals, can only be addressed by a return to collective pension solutions.

Otherwise, Britain will degenerate into the mess that Australia and the USA are finding themselves in, countries where Super and 401k are creating plenty of pots but precious few pensions.

We now need a collective solution for those currently in non-advised drawdown

The purpose of tax-incentivised private pensions is to provide people with an income for life, not a pot of inheritable wealth or finance for a Lamborghini.

While I am in favour of giving those people who refuse to spend and those who insist on spending, their retirement savings, the chance to do so;- I am not in favour of making the default decumulation option, a pot of money sitting with an insurance company or on a SIPP platform- with little or no advice.

For the vast majority of ordinary people, a collective means of converting pot back into pension is needed, and needed as soon as possible.

I call on the FCA to spend time with the DWP in exploring the opportunities CDC brings to help ordinary people create wage for life in their post – retirement years.

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged CDC, FCA, inheirtable, pension, pensions, Retirement, retirment incomes, Wealth | 1 Comment

Is a ban on contingent fees “RDR 2”?

Posted on March 28, 2018 by henry tapper

lamborghini

Firstly an apology, some of my readers yesterday, considered the analogy between the fate of Syrian cities and UK pension schemes distasteful. I write a lot, I don’t always get it right – I don’t mean to offend- but sometimes I will. Here’s a picture of a Lamborghini to cheer us all up.

I was at Malcolm Small’s funeral yesterday, walking to the crematorium I thought how little Malcolm would have thought of the FCA’s proposed interventions; I was walking with a business colleague of Malcolm’s who is CEO of one of the big fund platforms – big winners from the shift of assets from institutional from wealth management. He told me that the removal of the right to charge contingently – would be akin to RDR2, threatening the vertically integrated advisory model itself.

I agree. That model is under existential threat, but not just from the FCA’s challenge to the transfer market. The Asset Management Market Review and the CMA’s subsequent investigation of investment consultants points to the same conflicts of interest.

Time for us to come clean on RDR

The public was told , when the Retail Distribution Review was implement over 5 years ago, that the advisers would no longer be rewarded from the products they advised upon. At a recent Dentons seminar, Michelle Cracknell cited an example of an adviser refusing to act for a client on a transfer unless the money was directed at a discretionary fund managed by the adviser. I read the same in a number of submissions at a recent IFA award event, at which I was a judge.

Rather than give whole of market advice on investment options, advisers seem to be operating to a commercial model that focusses on creating an ongoing annuity stream for the adviser’s business. This is – to my mind – precisely what the RDR sort to prevent.

The inherent bias that has crept back into the system – call it contingent (or conditional) charging, call it vertical integration – looks like commission to the man or woman in the street. If it looks, feel and smells like commission – it is commission – whatever you call it.

It is time for us to come clean on RDR and on independence, if advisory businesses are dependent on assets under advice and are rewarded for asset gathering, then they are not independent financial advisers. They may be regulated by the FCA but they cannot claim to be acting for the client, they are acting for their business. People need to know this and accept that they are being sold a solution – in the matter in hand – the transfer of pension rights to an asset management service.

At the moment, they are being sold something different, people are expecting an IFA to advise them independently of the solution.

Putting separation between advice and product

I was talking to a friend of mine who worked for Tideway as an intern in the summer of 2013 and was surprised to find that the model he was working on back then was to evolve into what Tideway offer today (see Pete Doherty’s article on this blog). Doherty is a smart business man, he could see then, what the FCA and tPR seem to be waking up to today, that it is impossible to operate as an adviser and manage funds without justifying the conflict of interest. Docherty’s article is an excellent articulation of how conflicts can be justified but it depends on our suspending disbelief in inherent risks that the RDR sought to mitigate.

I stand on the other side of that argument, and I call for the immediate cessation of the practice of contingent pricing.

I also call on the large consultancies to split their fiduciary management businesses from their investment consultancies. Let me remind you of that leaked memo from Mercer to its staff.

“We want to protect our existing … revenue as much as possible,” .

“Accordingly we do not intend to advertise the new lower fees to existing members and we don’t want to make it easy for them to [a] find out about the new lower fees and [b] access them.”

If you are claiming to be acting for your “existing members” but in practice “protecting your existing revenues” then it is a commercial imperative that you manage these kind of business problems in your favour and against the interests of those you claim to act for.

Until we separate advice and product, we cannot have a transparent market and that goes as much for the world of independent investment consultants as it does for independent financial advisers.

There is an argument , much loved of those who argue for vertical integration, that “the people have spoken”. It works on the fallacious logic that because a business model is successful, it is legitimised. We – the public – have proved again and again that in matters financial – especially matters involving long-term investments, we are poor buyers. Here is the OFT in 2014. OFT

Ironically, one of the strongest parts of the retirement market is now the workplace pension. I say “ironically”, because it is a financial solution studiously ignored by those who offer contingent fees as a means to pay for transfer advice. I would like the FCA to do a spot check on the advisers it is currently monitoring as Pension Transfer Specialists and look for evidence of advice on a transfer into NEST or any other workplace pension plan into which their client may be saving.

This is a conflict between consumer and provider

Let us not pretend that those who are providing commoditised advice to transfer on a contingent fee basis are IFAs, they are not, they are providers of a transactional service that turns a pension to a pot.

So these advisers are really providers and the pots they manage are only “pensions” in that they can be adapted to draw down through regular capital redemptions, a string of regular payments.

The system is incentivised by tax-relief, which was originally granted because people were saving to buy a pension (an annuity). That tax-relief is enjoyed by savers but paid for by all tax-payers. That tax-relief was not granted for the purposes of wealth preservation, for inheritance tax mitigation or any of the other arguments put forward by wealth managers to justify their ad valorem fees.

It was granted so that people could insure against living too long and provide themselves with a wage for life. That is precisely what a final salary scheme or career average pension scheme does. That is not what a wealth management service does, try as it might to convince us otherwise.

If we are comfortable to incentivise wealth management- then let’s be clear that is what we are doing. Let us have a Regulator who actively promotes contingent charging because the Regulator believes in neutrality and in people swapping pots for pensions (if that’s what they want to do).

But the clear feedback that the FCA got through CP17/16 was that was not what was good for people. In 53% of overall cases (51% in the recent work on BSPS cases), the FCA were unsure of the validity of the advice and could see no clear reason to transfer. They saw no reason to suppose those advised “special”.

That suggests, what the OFT told us in 2014, that in matters to do with workplace pensions, we – the public – don’t know what we are doing.

Handing us the keys to the Lamborghini, sounds a recipe for disaster to me.

Apropos nothing at all

If you want to see my short video on how I think we got here, press this link to New Model Adviser’s website.

Posted in pensions | 4 Comments

There’s nothing democratic about genocide. FCA should stop “contingent charging” today.

Posted on March 27, 2018 by henry tapper

shelling

The FCA have published two papers on transfers

A policy paper CP 18/6 “Improving the quality of pension transfer advice and

A consultation paper CP 18/7 “advising on pension transfers”.

The upshot of which is that The FCA has gone back to its historic position (one that it never left), the “starting assumption” for a transfer, is that it is unsuitable.

This reinforces the position adopted by Al Cunningham who asks each client “what makes you special?” when addressing the question “should I transfer?”.

It has gone further and in section 6 of the consultation it asks

“Do you think that contingent charging increases the likelihood of unsuitable advice?

and in case you thought the answer to that question was “no“, the FCA follow up

“If we proceeded to restrict the way in which pension transfer advice can be charged, do you have views on how this should be implemented? In particular, how could we avoid different forms of restriction being gamed?”

I have a very simple remedy for gaming – ban those who you think are taking the Michael from the privileges accorded a Pension Transfer Specialist and fine the firm.

For those not in the bubble, contingent (aka conditional) charging is the practice of only charging a fee for advice as and when a transfer has completed. It charges the fee to the transferred pot , thus avoiding the need for VAT or income tax on the fee or a cheque to be written.

Contingent charging is – to anyone outside the advisory bubble – commission. It is an agreed commission – which is how it gets round the RDR, but it is a commission.

As a reminder , here’s Wiki

The payment of commission as remuneration for services rendered or products sold is a common way to reward sales people. Payments often are calculated on the basis of a percentage of the goods sold, a way for firms to solve the principal–agent problem by attempting to realign employees’ interests with those of the firm.

In its study on Port Talbot, the FCA found that 51% of the cases it looked at led to unsuitable recommendations to transfer. As a reminder, nearly £3bn will be removed from the BSPS pension scheme, as much again from LBG and £4.2bn was transferred out via the back door from the Barclays Pension Scheme.

These schemes are now collecting from their administrators , the data on who advised on these transfers. The estimated figures from the Office of National Statistics for 2017 transfers is £34.3bn (up from £12bn), the year before. I know that at least one of the three schemes above did not submit data to ONS and I suspect that the final figure for 2017 (which we may not get till December)- will be much higher.

This explosion in transfer activity, coincided with the introduction of conditional charging. Pension Freedoms did not arrive in 2017, transfer values did not increase in 2017.

What happened in 2017, was that someone picked the lock to the stable door.

I have repeatedly called for contingent fees to be banned. If you want to read my call , read it here.

The democratisation of advice? – don’t make me laugh!

The standard defence of conditional pricing, one made on these pages by the CEO of Tideway – Peter Doherty – is that it is in the consumer’s interest.

It is argued that it makes advice affordable as it is levied on someone’s pension account , not the bank account.
It is argued that it reduces wastage, people pay on a “no win no fee” basis.
It is even argued that it is charitable, as advisers give “no” recommendations free of charge.

These are arguments are spurious, bogus and bullshit (depending on your attitude to the vernacular).

One response to CP16 was picked out on twitter by Ivor Harper

PS18/6 reveals that some respondents though FCA might “add guidance on the need to consider whether an existing workplace pension is a suitable destination for a transfer”
Do any advisers really need ‘guidance’ on that point? If so, it’s no wonder there are problems out there

— Ivor Harper (@ivor_park_fin) March 26, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Advisers routinely “ignore the workplace pension”, despite it offering a guided pathway at a price typically a quarter that of an advised solution using a DFM within a SIPP.

Has anyone attempted to justify the 2.5% pa price tags routinely attaching to the SJP/Tideway….solutions? Has anyone benchmarked outcomes since 2011 against an investment in say NEST or L&G’s default- the multi asset fund?

Is anyone auditing the delivery of advice to those who have opted for the “advised solutions using a DFM within a SIPP?”

Is anyone – other than me, Michelle Cracknell and Ivor Harper asking what “guidance” is needed for advisers to be treating customers fairly?

We have been here before, in 2000, prior to the introduction of stakeholder charges – which capped pension AMCs at 1%. At that point , the FSA brought in RU64, which required advisers to recommend solutions at stakeholder cost, rather than continue to sell high commission products whose initial units could carry up to a 5% pa charge.

The FCA should look at that solution, it brought about immediate and positive change to consumers.

There is nothing democratic about genocide.

PPI was not democratic because it allowed financially illiterate people to walk away with a brand new 50 inch flat screen TV. Nor is contingent charging democratic because it allows people to swap a wage for life for the hardest, nastiest problem in finance.

Stop the shelling now

It is quite clear that the game is up for conditional charging, meanwhile anything up to £5bn a month is transferring from pension to pot via CETVs. The consultation is open till May 25th , we can expect a policy statement in the Autumn (which usually means November).

The FCA can and should do better than this. It has identified a problem and the cause of the problem. You do not need a consultation to work out what 53% of £34.2bn is – it is £17bn + of ill-advised money currently in the wrong place.

If the FCA wants another £17bn to follow it, it can consult and propose. If it wants to do something to protect consumers, it should put an “RU64” style policy in place and cap the amount taken out of any advised solution at 0.75% pa (to include initial fees).

shelling

Postscript

Before I get abuse for IFA bashing, I see no better behaviours among many actuarial consultants. Mercer in Australia have been “busted” for treating customers unfairly.

“We want to protect our existing … revenue as much as possible,” Mercer, a US-owned multinational that is a big player in superannuation, wrote to senior staff.

“Accordingly we do not intend to advertise the new lower fees to existing members and we don’t want to make it easy for them to [a] find out about the new lower fees and [b] access them.”

Posted in BSPS, de-risking, Henry Tapper blog, pensions | Tagged CETV, CP18/6, CP18/7, FCA, Genocide, pensions | 3 Comments

Are DB pensions benefiting from CETV de-risking?

Posted on March 26, 2018 by henry tapper

“Too prudent for its own good” – how under-risking DB schemes causes new problems.Full steam ahead

It’s a fair question for a blogger to ask. I don’t have the answer and suspect that you’d get a different reply depending on who you asked.

Here are the facts

According to Hymans Robertson ,

The total value of buy-out and buy-in deals struck in H2 2016 was around £7.6 billion (around £10.2 billion for the year to 31 December 2016) and there were two longevity swaps in H1 2017 covering £1.1 billion of liabilities. Forty two deals, covering liabilities worth over £65 billion, have been completed since 30 June 2009.

These figures are confirmed by LCP

LCP Pension De-Risking 2018

Meanwhile, the levels of “voluntary buy-out”, or personal transfers, has rocketed.

These are the figures published by the Office of National Statistics last week

MQ5 (22nd March)

Not only are “voluntary buy-outs” three times up on 2016 levels, they are now three times higher than the much more expensive insured buy-outs and buy-ins.

Why so quiet?

DIY de-risking is gutting the active and deferred membership of some schemes; I quote Barclays £4.2bn, LBG c£3bn and BSPS (just under £3bn) – all 2017 transfers.

As the discount rates for voluntary transfer value is a “best estimate” figure, well below the buy-out cost, the beneficial impact on scheme funding of this mass migration is much more than the bare numbers suggest.

The £34.245 bn number at the bottom right hand corner of the ONS table is truly astonishing. I have written in a recent blog about what lies behind this mass desertion. I do not think it is about pension freedoms (we’ve had these a number of years), nor do I think there are conspicuously higher CETVs in 2017 over 2016, I see the explosion in transfers as being all about IFAs and other advisers getting their shit together. I have explained this in a recent blog – it’s got everything to do with contingent charging.

Old Mutual reported that 20% of all new money arriving on its commoditised SIPP platform came from CETVs, the recent hikes in new business at SJP, Royal London and especially Prudential suggest that for all the noise about institutional de-risking, the real heavy lifting’s taking place in the voluntary sector.

Here’s why these are numbers nobody wants to talk about…

No fiduciary controls; trustees can control the buy-out and buy-in of insurers- targeting the populations whose benefit payments are outsourced to insurers. No such control exists on voluntary transfers
No management information; ask large occupational pension schemes (like those mentioned above) who has transferred out and they’ll be hard pushed to give you decent management information. Third party administrators are not geared up to provide the kind of reports trustees need to understand the impact of these individual transfers.
No future skin in the game; trustees choose who provides members with their future pensions. They can conduct due diligence on the insurer’s covenant. They have no such choice on where member money goes on transfers and no control of how this money is paid to members (as members have total pension freedom).

Nobody wants to talk about voluntary transfers because (from a trustee standpoint) they are totally out of control.

We can also point to the Regulators (FCA and tPR), who have also lost control of what is going on. They are consulting on a joint strategy , but recent announcements fight shy of tackling voluntary transfers. This is amazing as….

The FCA tell us they are unhappy with 53% of the CETV decisions they sampled last year.
The Work and Pension Select Committee rightly concluded that the FCA had totally lost control at Port Talbot. Judging by the statistics above, there are many Port Talbots, many of which have yet to come to light.
The destination of the transferred monies suggests anything but an ordered market. The chaotic “voluntary” withdrawal of advisers from the market is leaving many pension scheme members unable to complete transfers (to general frustration).

Nobody wants to talk about this because it points to there being a train crash. This train crash is not on some branch line, it is on the main line.

Employers happy , trustees concerned , regulators terrified

That would be my current answer to the question posed in this blog. The Regulators who are responsible for protecting consumers (but also wider public policy) are terrified that when the outcomes of this £34.2bn voluntary transfer become evident, the fans in Whitehall and Canary Wharf will be distributing manure on an industrial basis.

Trustees are concerned but not overly so, their funding levels will improve as risks disappear. They don’t know what kinds of risks they are losing – they don’t know whether they are losing unhealthy members looking to spend before they die or the clever sods who will DIY their investments and live for ever. So the level of concern among trustees is not as high as it might be expected.

Meantime, employers are looking forward to the publication of their FRS102 numbers which should show (in many cases) a sharp drop in pension scheme liabilities on the balance sheet. It was not for nothing that Barclays chose to include the £4.2bn CETV number in its accounts – this is material to the shareholders – and materially positive.

So what does the Pension Plowman think?

I think that the awful truth is being supressed and that that is not good. It is better for the Regulators, Trustees and Employers to be clear about what is going on. The White Paper published last week on DB pensions, despite having a whole chapter (4) devoted to BSPS, hardly considers the impact of CETVs on DB schemes. LCP and Hymans’ surveys suggest that de-risking is an orderly market controlled by Trustees (and their advisers).

Meanwhile, the employers who have been used to paying handsomely to encourage Enhanced Transfer Values, now find that job is being done for them, on a huge scale, by advisers – and at no extra cost to them a above their best estimate funding levels.

If there has been a train crash, no one is telling the signalman, watch out for carnage down the line.

Full steam ahead

Posted in annuity, Big Government, BSPS, pensions | Tagged de-risking, DWP, FCA, Hyman Robertson, LCP, ONS, pensions, Train crash | 1 Comment

“Too prudent for its own good” – how under-risking DB schemes causes new problems.

Posted on March 25, 2018 by henry tapper

prudence 2

Someone , somewhere on the multiple threads surrounding USS, has asked me if I think that transfers out of USS are likely to be the next miss-selling scandal. I think it unlikely, and to explain why, I need to explain a concept that I could call the “vulnerable defined benefit pension scheme”.

The vulnerable scheme

In the “old days”, advisers tried to judge a transfer by the critical yield resulting from a transfer value analysis (RVAS(. This was an inefficient way of doing things, the TVAS showed the adviser the critical yield needed to better outcomes, but as the TVAS comparison was based on annuity comparisons (and people were looking to be free of annuities), TVAS has fallen into disrepute.

Instead, advisers are resorting to a much simpler comparison; they simply look at the multiple of prospective pension within the CETV. So if you have a £15,000 pa pension promise and a £600,000 CETV, you are on a 40x multiple and it’s all systems go for a transfer.

The multiples for USS are likely to be a lot lower than 40x, that’s principally because USS is an open pension scheme and therefore adopts a growth based investment strategy involving a relatively high allocation to equities. These equities are expected to grow faster than gilts and so they allow those valuing USS pension promises to use a higher discount factor which leads to lower transfer values.

USS is not a “vulnerable scheme” in the way that schemes that have moved to “de-risk” by selling their equities and adopting a gilts based funding strategy. Barclays and Lloyds have such investment strategies and they provide transfer values over 40 times the pension.

Schemes like Barclays and Lloyds, which are reporting multi-billion pound outflows to CETVs, are “vulnerable schemes”.

But it’s not just a high income multiple that can make a scheme vulnerable. Other factors that can expose a scheme to high volumes of transfers are loss of confidence in the scheme sponsor (this is what happened at BSPS), a time limited transfer option (BSPS again ) and a well organised IFA marketing campaign (BSPS again).

British Steel Pension Scheme’s transfer multiples are around 25x, but in all other respects, it has become a “vulnerable scheme”.

There is (maybe) one other factor, the financial sophistication of members and their appetite for pensions rather than pots. I suspect that the USS membership are relatively sophisticated and have a higher regard for pensions rather than pots than other memberships, but that has yet to be tested. USS could become a mis-selling scandal but I suspect that advisers have got better schemes and easier memberships to target.

Targeting vulnerable schemes

Most IFAs I know, are fairly familiar with “vulnerable schemes”, they don’t need to know why a scheme is giving high income multiples, they just need to know they are on offer.

Once an IFA has done one transfer, word soon gets around and without too much effort, an IFA can pick up a number of referrals from other scheme members anxious to capture a pot from their pension

There may be many such “referral deals” out there. We certainly know of them at BSPS.

IFAs don’t need to have to work too hard where they are into a vulnerable scheme, unsurprisingly, their biggest threat is other IFAs competing for the same customers.

As has been rehearsed on this blog many times recently, the key breakthrough for IFAs has been their discovery that their clients can pay for transfer advice out of the transfer without having to write a cheque from taxed funds and without having to pay VAT.

In extreme cases, as happened with Active Wealth in Port Talbot, the adviser appears to have been part of a complex matrix of cross subsidies that made it appear to be charging rock bottom prices while the customer was paying exorbitant fund management costs.

Ultimately, Active Wealth Management had the perfect marketing approach for their customers, offering superb service at no price at all. What was going on behind the scenes is now a matter for FCA investigation.

Prudence

Readers may be asking themselves, why two schemes with similar benefit structures (Barclays and USS) can offer different CETV multiples . At a technical level, it’s because of differing discount rates, but philosophically – it’s because the Trustees of a Barclays, or an Aon or a Lloyds have chosen to do what the Pensions Regulator want them to do, and target “self-sufficiency”. That means the Trustees immunising themselves against market shocks by moving into gilts, matching liabilities to assets – effectively making the scheme invulnerable.

Bizarrely, in adopting this super-prudent approach, such schemes are making themselves vulnerable in a new way – vulnerable to transfers. Barclays has lost £4.2bn of its scheme assets (probably around 25% of transferrable assets) in a single year.

There may be those within the bank who see this as good news, (CETVs are less expensive to pay than the liabilities are accounted for in the Banks accounts) but most stakeholders – including the Regulators, are not in the business of promoting CETVs against pensions.

Whose prudence is it anyway?

It is hardly surprising that this question is being asked by those who are giving away the prudence they have built up in their scheme, through ultra-high transfer values.

Trustees can rightly point at the Regulator for an answer. If tPR has demanded a prudent investment strategy, surely it should have protected the schemes from the ravages of CETVs. Evidently this is not what the Pensions Regulator consider its job. If it did, it would have taken reasonable steps to protect schemes by either enforcing insufficiency reports – to dampen down demand, or it would have worked with the FCA to restrain the activities of advisers who have been filling their boots with contingent charging.

Some blame also attaches to consultants who have egged on their clients to adopt ultra-cautious strategies without any consideration for the consequences. As many of these advisers have themselves taken CETVs from schemes they were in , there inactivity in respect to this is understandable (but not forgivable).

“Too prudent for its own good?”

One Trustee asked me last month if I considered her scheme too prudent for its own good; I replied – “yes”!

We are in an era of de-risking. But it seems to me that in de-risking, many occupational schemes have simply passed risks that were retained by Trustees as their core purpose – the payment of pensions, for risks now managed by wealth managers but born by members.

If that was the intention of the Regulators (tPR and FCA) then it was never explicit. I doubt it was and suspect that it is only now that the consequences of this “flight to quality” is becoming clear.

It is not too late to stop the carnage, but urgent action is needed, if we are not to see another year – like 2017.

Members of USS would undoubtedly get higher transfer values if its scheme pursued a more cautious investment strategy, but they should beware the impact their pensions.

Posted in actuaries, advice gap, annuity, pensions | Tagged BSPS, CETV, CETVs, pensions, USS | 1 Comment

DB Transfers all but triple in a year.

Posted on March 23, 2018 by henry tapper

Transfers to other pension schemes¹⁰

RKQR

6,810

6,084

5,363

13,221

12,777

34,245

ONS andy

Andy is referring to the Office of National Statistics update to “Investment by insurance companies, pension funds and trusts (MQ5)” -table 4.3: …

The numbers are confirmed by the latest Origo stats, which show an alarming increase in transfers passing through its options service.

Origo Stats for their platform

So much for the Treasury’s predictions on the impact of Freedom and Choice on Defined Benefit Pension Transfers.

Treasury DB transfers

Vulnerable investors

There is , in the FCA’s cast-list , such a person as a “vulnerable investor”, defined as someone unfit to take rational decisions due to mental or physical incapacity.

I am tempted to include those active and deferred members of a DB plan as “vulnerable investors”.

The FCA recommend that vulnerable investors have special protections to ensure that they do not self-harm, when taking life-changing financial decisions. I suggest that special protection be given to those with eye-watering transfer values for whom the word “pension” no longer seems relevant.

Only a few weeks ago, the FTSE100 stood at 7700, today it is below 7000. I was at a session yesterday where we quizzed wealth managers on how they protected clients from major market downturns. The (provisional) £34.2bn that transferred into DC last year is a case in point.

Just how much financial resilience is there? What happens if the market falls below 6000? How will those drawing down units at 20% below purchase price recover from “pounds cost ravaging” AKA sequential risk? I heard no answers to those questions yesterday and I suspect that following a ten year bull run, such a scenario is far from wealth manager’s minds.

Wealth Managers show me charts with money flowing from accumulation, through transition to preservation and then inheritance, as if the point of his service was to avoid the question of income in retirement altogether. Were the generous tax reliefs on offer to these clients – supposed for inheritance tax mitigation?

It would seem that the pensions system established to supplement the state benefits, is being dismantled at a pace that quite outwits the Regulators. This weeks’ white paper earned this comment from LCP

This is a significant development in DB pensions policy, but it will be some time before many of the measures set out in the White Paper pass into law, if at all.

This week saw the Pensions Regulator and FCA issue a joint statement of intent to “work closer together”. LCP saw through that one too.

There is little real meat in this paper, with much of its content taken up in reciting what the two bodies are currently doing separately, before going on to ask what the two bodies could do jointly.

And finally we were treated to the Pensions Regulator’s second DB landscape report. LCP managed a notable hat-rick of put downs , commenting

This report (accompanied by a blog) provides a useful overview of aspects of the DB landscape that will be of interest to policymakers, but one cannot help think that the Regulator has much more detail on the landscape that it is choosing not to make public.

Are we getting the full story on transfers?

While Government fiddles, Rome burns.

Meanwhile, real people are doing real things to limit the damage. Before I had decamped to judge the wealth managers, I had had a pint and a burger with David Neilly. Here he is a few hours later collecting an award on behalf of Chive with his wife Karen.

David picks up the Chive award

David, Rich and Stefan were instrumental in bringing the problems at Port Talbot to the public eye. Al Rush, Al Cunningham, David Penny, Darren Cooke and many more great IFAs are now building a restitution service to help trustees and employers manage the problems created by unscrupulous advisers. Above all, this is Al Rush’s award.

It is up to blogs like mine, and their readership, to make it absolutely clear that the current system of transfer advice is failing the ordinary working person in this country.

The tripling of pension transfers over the past year is testament to that. If – as the FCA estimate- 53% of the transfers advised on in 2017 contained questionable advice, we are looking at around £18bn of these transfers, that should not have been made.

We cannot go on ignoring this problem.

Posted in advice gap, BSPS, pensions | Tagged BSPS, Chive, FCA, LCP, pensions, TPR, transfers | 7 Comments

IFAs and the defined benefit promise

Posted on March 21, 2018 by henry tapper

captive IFA

This article explores the relationship between IFAs and defined” benefit schemes, one that has historically been uneasy. It argues that the polarisation of opinion between IFAs who see pensions as “pots” of wealth, and those who regard them as a “wage for life” has never been stronger. This polarisation is present in politics, demonstrated by the differing view on “pension freedoms” at the DWP and Treasury, and present in Regulation, with polarisation between the FCA and tPR’s approach to these same issues.

This deep divide is philosophically between those who believe is that the management of financial assets should be a matter for the beneficiaries of those assets (the member) and those who think the creation of a lifelong income, a matter for collective endeavour.

And the fault lines created by these polarised positions are clear to see, wherever you look.

They are apparent from the Work and Pension Select Committee’s inquiry into Pension Freedoms, which focussed on the divisions in Port Talbot between BSPS members desperate to liberate the wealth in their pension scheme and the Trustees, who were (until recently) oblivious to the demand for “pension freedom”.

The fault lines were equally apparent in the disputes between Royal Mail and its membership (represented by the CWU) and the current dispute between USS and its members (represented by the UCU). In both cases, the employer believed philosophically that it was doing the right thing by switching from DB to DC accrual, based on evidence that ordinary people value a pot of wealth rather than a wage for life.

Contrarily, members have said no to a DC pot and held out for a wage for life. In the case of Royal Mail’s membership, this will mean an unguaranteed CDC pension and in the case of USS members, a continuation of guaranteed accrual from a DB plan.

An IFA, reading these paragraphs, has every right to be confused. Steel-workers are not normally considered as candidates for wealth management, but with average pots of c£400,000, they proved to be of great interest to a large number of IFAs. Meanwhile, the professors and lecturers who one would imagine financially capable, have gone out on strike , rather than be switched to a DC pension.

The polarisation of opinion cannot be defined on socio-economic lines, nor can it be defined in terms of education. In fact, the pension freedoms seem to be as popular on the streets of Tai Bach as in the City of London.

It now looks likely that once all transfers out of BSPS are completed (some time in April), around £3bn will have moved from “pensions to pots”. This is roughly the same amount that has been transferred out of the Lloyds Bank staff pension scheme and around 75% of the £4.2bn that Barclays have reported moving out of their pension scheme. It was not long ago that KPMG were estimating the total transfers from DB to DC in 2017 would be £6bn. What has happened?

The explosion of transfers that has happened from mid 2016 onwards, cannot be explained by the Pension Freedoms alone, indeed , in its 2014 impact analysis, the Treasury saw no reason for the changes in the tax treatment of DC pensions as having little to no impact on DB to DC pensions.

Nor can it be considered a function of quantitative easing or the shift of DB assets from equities to gilts. While there may have been a marginal shift (major at BSPS), quantitative easing and the trend for DB pensions to “de-risk”, were established well before 2017.

What I believe has happened over the past eighteen months has had everything to do with adviser confidence, especially confidence in the IFA sector. Underpinning this confidence is the rise in world stock- markets which has seen equity-based wealth management solutions deliver fabulous returns to their customers for nearly ten years. There is a sense among many advisers I speak to , of invincibility in market forces and the power of investments in growth assets to deliver better outcomes than can be achieved from DB pensions.

The second factor that has given advisers confidence, is finding a mechanism to unpick the lock on the CETV, without creating disruption to their client’s cash-flows. I mean by this the practice of conditional charging. By putting the bill for advice at the back end of the advisory process, IFAs can achieve a painless transfer to their wealth management solution that enables them to be paid from a tax-exempt fund without concerns over VAT. It enables clients to release their “DB wealth” without reaching for their cheque book and it is a very elegant solution to the problems posed by the requirement of those wishing to transfer an amount above £30,000, to take financial advice.

There is nothing uncompliant about conditional charging and it is now widely used by the majority of Britain’s 2,500 transfer specialists. However, conditional charging is showing signs of stress. Ten firms have now “voluntarily” handed back their permissions to advise on DB transfers , leaving hundreds of clients orphaned from the transfer process and marooned in DB.

A recent article in the Financial Times, saw the Personal Finance Society’s Keith Richards, claim that Professional Indemnity Insurers were jacking up premiums for those remaining PTS’ and denying some cover. The practice of outsourcing pensions advice to specialist Transfer Value Analysts, has come under considerable pressure from the FCA.

All this is evidence of the deep divide between those who see a pension as a “pot of wealth” and those who regard it as a wage for life. Many advisers, such as John Mather, consider the defined benefit system, so broken, that engineering a route out of DB for clients , is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, the FCA insist that from their sampling in 2017, 53% of transfers examined, contained either questionable or wrongful advice.

The Pensions Regulator and the FCA are at last working together to produce a joint pension strategy. In a recent session of the Work and Pensions Committee, its Chair- Frank Field- suggested that advisers and trustees were living in “different countries”. The same criticism has been made of the two regulators.

It remains to be seen where this will all end up, few believe that we have seen the end to the DB transfers. The results of SJP, Old Mutual, Prudential and many other providers, suggest that pension providers are now reliant on the massive flows of assets brought to them by advisers. Many advisers now seem as addicted to conditional charging as they were to commission and the FCA and Pensions Regulator, seem powerless to prevent CETVs becoming business as usual.

As always, the analysis of the issue , post-dates it. The transfer from pensions to pots will go on, till a point where either the available assets within DB schemes have been exhausted, or a proper brake has been put on the transfer process, most likely by a Government with the will to ban conditional charging.

In the meantime. we have to hope that those in charge of this new found wealth, can deliver on their promises.

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged defined benefit, IFA, Pension Freedoms, pensions | 6 Comments

Bill Galvin , stop whingeing to the FT and come down here!

Posted on March 18, 2018 by henry tapper

Bill Galvin is a very nice man

Bill Galvin would be well-advised not to snipe at social media for peddling misconceptions about the University Superannuation Scheme.

Dennis Leech, Professor of Economics at Warwick concludes a recent article with the question

will this independent group be subject to the normal modalities of academic enquiry and discourse? It is after all the function of academia to find out the truth by open, free debate. That is what universities are for.

He is not speaking of the USS itself, but of the proposed group of experts proposed to oversee the valuations of the scheme. Personally, I find no need for such a group, like Dennis, I see the most constructive conversations about the future of the USS and the pensions of lecturers and professors in the open and free debate of social media.

Bill’s USS enjoy a privileged position in the current dispute

Both the Trustees and UUK would need to agree to revert back to the Sept basis. The problem is always that USS have no skin in this game – strikes don’t hurt them

— Hilary Salt (@RedActuary) March 17, 2018

Just because Bill isn’t in the front line, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be involved. I’d say he and his colleagues are failing the Frank Field Test.

The Frank Field Test

USS , like BSPS, has chosen not to use social media to engage its membership in its issues. Now Bill Galvin, its CEO has complained to the Financial Times.

“We have seen material which suggests that this valuation has been done on the basis of [all university] employers going insolvent. This is palpably untrue.”

Come off it Bill – this sounds pompous – it doesn’t sound like you at all.

And I have to ask you Bill why you think the FT is a better soapbox than twitter?

I didn’t see Jesus, when he preached, avoiding social media, he went to the nearest boat, hill or street and broadcast his views to the masses; much to the annoyance of the priests who had till then had a monopoly on teaching.

I am not likening the FT to the Pharisees, (the FT gets social media), but I think Bill would be minded to get out of their pulpit and come and talk to the people who pay his wages.

And quite some wages

USS has *113* staff earning more than £100k per annum. I wonder what proportion are male?

— etymologic (@etymologic) March 17, 2018

The issue created by having a very big salary is akin to that of the Selfish Giant, who – finding himself in possession of a fine garden, put a big fence around it – to keep out the plebs. Bill’s behavior could be interpreted in that way.

It is doubly unfortunate that while I know Bill to be one of the most down to earth of people, the sponsors of his scheme, the Universities, are run by people who have quite lost the confidence of his members and indeed the University’s customers.

Student perspective on what current #USS dispute has revealed. Mini thread 👇🏻 https://t.co/eCVHkeozHe

— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 17, 2018

The Frank Field Test establishes whether the management and Trustees of a pension scheme are in the same country as its membership. I suspect that Bill has been lumped in with the Vice Chancellors as an overpaid elitist, probably abusing his expense account and certainly avoiding open debate.

None of which is fair of the man.

Social media is not alternative truth!

Although it’s possible to find irresponsible comment on social media, and though much that is written is unintentionally wrong, social media has a habit of ironing out its creases in time. The threads about USS on twitter have shown some of the most intelligent debate on pensions I have ever read – not least because they are informed by the opinion of brilliant people (like Dennis Leech).

Bill can take many isolated instances of people getting wrong and use them to justify his negative views on social media, but these are exceptions – to use his language “outliers”.

Instead of criticising social media, he should be studying it – as should the Pensions Regulator, there is wisdom in the crowd and it will show itself over time. Social media cannot be pushed around as conventional media can, there are no Robert Maxwells or Rupert Murdoch’s controlling the social media agenda,

Instead there is a groundswell of informed opinion that surfaces from time – the still small voice of calm. Shakespeare wrote for the pit as well as the galleries and without the diversity of the Elizabethan theatre audience, his plays would be the less. Bill cannot confine himself to the Financial Times, he should come down off his high horse and mix it with the groundlings!

He should be feeding the 5000, not just the elite readership of the FT.

Posted in pensions, USS | Tagged Bill Galvin, first actuarial, ft, Hilary Salt, pensions, social media, USS, UUK | 8 Comments

Transfer carnage at BSPS – the truth revealed

Posted on March 16, 2018 by henry tapper

BSPS Missing

The full impact of transfers on the British Steel Pension Scheme has been revealed in this perfunctory tweet

The British Steel Pension Scheme has paid just over £1.5bn from around 4000 DB transfers to date. Around 3700 transfers still to be processed.

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) March 12, 2018

I have since had it confirmed from the Trustee that it now expects the final amount taken via Cash Equivalent Transfer Values from the scheme to be “over £2.5bn”.

My estimates have been that £3bn has been requested to transfer, that it may be less than that, may be because a number of applications will be disqualified because the firm certifying the advice, has withdrawn from the market. Yesterday, the FCA confirmed that the number of firms who have voluntarily de-authorised themselves has risen to ten.

Technical note ; the CETVs at BSPS are (as a multiple of salary) relatively low – typically 25 times pension. This is because of a relatively high discount rate resulting from the high allocation of the scheme to growth assets and the 5% clip on CETVs resulting from the insufficiency report issued by actuaries WTW.

As a proportion of total scheme assets, the amount transferred out is around 25%, as a proportion of deferred members assets – it is probably double that. Transfers taken have been from those with longest service and with most to transfer. This either suggests a degree of cherry picking among those advising, or that there is a preciously undisclosed class of BSPS employee – who might be deemed “wealthy”.

What does this mean for the 3,700 BSPS members who’ve yet to have their CETVs paid.

At least we now know that all those who got the correct papers in – will have their transfers paid – though I fear there are many who will find out too late that there was an error in their paperwork.

BSPS has 3700 pension transfer requests pending.
“Members switching to new scheme who submitted all necessary paperwork on or before 16 Feb will have their transfer paid on the basis of the value quoted. This will be the case even if the transfer is not paid until after 28 March”

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) March 12, 2018

What does this mean for BSPS 2 (New BSPS)?

It will mean that up to 7,500 of the projected membership of BSPS2 will never join. Some of those may not have made an election under Time to Choose and some may have “chosen” PPF, but most of the transferees will have otherwise have headed for the new scheme.

Since the Trustee, by his own admission, totally underestimated the size of the transfer, it is likely to be a different BSPS2 than had been imagined, one with fewer deferred pensioners and less assets. Paradoxically, the financial resilience of BSPS2 may have been strengthened by these transfers as the “buffer” put in place as part of the Regulatory Apportionment Agreement, is not impacted by transfers out – it is only reduced by those falling into PPF. If the scheme is stronger, it is also likely to be less ambitious. The wings of CIO, Hugh Smart will be further clipped as he is now managing out a pool of pensioners with a much reduced constituency of youngsters. The capacity to invest for growth is severely diminished.

In summary, the shift of nearly 8,000 deferred away from BSPS2 will make the scheme stronger but less likely to deliver discretionary increases in future. This make for a different BSPS2 – not necessarily a worse one.

What does it mean for UK financial services?

BSPS is by no means the scheme with the biggest CETV bill. Barclays’ accounts it shed £4.2bn in 2017, Lloyds Banking Group reckon they are losing c£250m a month, British Airways talk of £75m a month.

The ONS MQ5 Data for Quarter 1 2017 onwards remain provisional and subject to revision until the incorporation of the 2017 annual survey results in December 2018.

So we will not know – till later this year the full extent of the voluntary shift from DB pension members , from collective pensions to individual arrangements. But there are enough schemes reporting more than 10% of relevant assets transferring to suggest that 2017 has been a game changer.

While the occupational schemes shed assets, the insurers and SIPP providers report record years. Old Mutual reported this week a 40% increase in profits with over 20% of all inflows last year from DB transfers. Similar numbers are reported from the Prudential (with exponential growth in Prufund) and St James Place. The insurers and the SIPP platforms have simply held forth their aprons.

What does this mean for Government policy?

The libertarians will argue that this is the greatest thing to happen for freedom and choice since the French Revolution. Others will be more cautious.

53% of Transfers investigated by the FCA last year were considered questionable or worse. That’s around £1.5bn of BSPS money and over £2bn of Barclays money.

The Personal Finance Society has claimed that many people who would have had the option of freedom and choice will have their dreams broken by Professional Indemnity Insurers unwilling to insure some advisers to do more of the same. This claim was reported in the FT. PFS

It is unsurprising that PI insurers are nervous about insuring a market where 53% of the cases investigated by the FCA are deemed unsafe. PI insurers have long memories!

And it was disingenuous of the PFS to suggest that the intention of the Treasury, in introducing Pension Freedoms was to increase the numbers of people transferring out of DB schemes.

Below is an excerpt from the Treasury’s impact study , published in 2014.

Treasury DB transfers

What this wholesale charge to freedom means is that the intentions of the legislation laid down in PA2015, have been reversed. Pension Transfers have soared since the introduction of the Pension Freedoms.

This is a major embarrassment to the Treasury, not least because the pension fund trustees, mentioned above, appear to have had no power at all to “help mitigate risks to DB pension schemes from an increase in demands for transfers”. It is only now that the FCA is recognising there is a problem. One of the lessons of Port Talbot is that neither Regulators, nor the Trustee were alive to what was happening under their very noses. They were – to use Frank Field’s phrase “in another country”.

The Treasury are an unwitting accomplice to this carnage

For all the fine words of its 2014 statement, the Treasury have unwittingly encouraged IFAs to milk defined benefit schemes. They have done this by condoning conditional fees which allow ordinary people “free advice” or at least advice paid for out of the transferred funds in such a way as they never have to dip into their pockets. The cost of this advice to the public purse is that it is paid for from a tax exempt pension fund and paid under the “intermediation” rules, without VAT.

The Treasury is aiding and abetting the very thing it claimed it would prevent. It’s principal enforcement agency, the FCA – seems powerless to do anything about it.

If you want to read more about this scandal, follow this thread.

Some sorry conclusions

Transfer levels were at an all time high in 2017 with some schemes seeing over 10% of available assets transferring
This has been a bonanza for advisers, SIPP providers and insurers.
If the FCA sampling is correct, more than half of this money should not have moved
The only thing that appears able to stop the flow is the refusal of PI insurers to insure advisers to continue
The Treasury impact statement has proven hopeless – pension freedoms are now claimed by the FCA to be about allowing this carnage to continue
The Treasury are aiding and abetting all this by permitting conditional fees to be used as a means of paying for advice.

The October poll on BSPS Facebook that led me to Port Talbot

Posted in annuity, BSPS, pensions | Tagged BSPS, FCA, ft, pensions, PFA, transfers, Treasury | 14 Comments

When enough isn’t enough – thoughts on #NoCapitulation

Posted on March 14, 2018 by henry tapper

No capitulation

Is the USS really in crisis?

I was disappointed to read that the University strike isn’t over. But it isn’t and Jo Cumbo hits the nail on the head.

“Majority of members wish to reject the proposal as insufficient.”

What would be sufficient? https://t.co/ZdQwDJcJl2

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) March 13, 2018

By going against their Union’s recommendation, the lecturers now have to find a position which through some kind of collective process. And people who had previously no knowledge of how pensions work, are having to get up to speed with the arguments for and against.

I want to hear measured responses to this, in words I understand, so I can work out what is wrong with it…. 1/2 https://t.co/BYl0XcJMKB

— Rebecca Leach (@hcaelacceber) March 13, 2018

as Rebecca goes on to say

…Pension experts think academics are playing at amateur actuarial science. I suspect a difference of broader economic ideologies is at the heart of this difference but until we’re talking the same language we won’t know. @JosephineCumbo @henryhtapper @DrJoGrady

— Rebecca Leach (@hcaelacceber) March 13, 2018

Rebecca – read Dennis Leech’s blog

I wish I had the time, energy and wit to bring together in one short and easy to read article, a proper argument that refutes what John Ralfe is saying. If Rebecca or any other lecturer, wants to understand the “other side of the argument”, then I can point them to the excellent work of Mike Otsuka on this blog. I have written myself, but not as well.

However there is one article that has been published on my blog for some time, that has been read by many thousands of lecturers that meets Rebecca’s requirements. It was written by Dennis Leech and can be found here.

https://henrytapper.com/2017/11/25/is-the-uss-really-in-crisis/

When I wrote yesterday morning that the UCU/UUK agreement could see the end of the strike, I had to change “should” to “could” , when I saw the weight of opinion behind the “no capitulation” hashtag.

I spent the day at Cheltenham (lucky me) and have just seen Dennis’ comment on my blog.

Dennis leech

Dennis is a sound judge, a lightening stick for the thinking of those around him. The UCU must now rethink its position, as must UUK. Sadly, the space afforded by the proposals put forward on Monday, is no longer there.

Meanwhile, the idealists among us , can enjoy four minutes of Bruce, getting carried away!

Posted in pensions, USS | Tagged CDC, DB, John Ralfe, pensions, USS, UUK | Leave a comment

A master class in fractional scamming

Posted on March 12, 2018 by henry tapper

$fractions$

It’s childsplay

Scamming has grown up; long gone the daylight robbery , fading into the distance “pension liberation”. Today’s scammer plays pass the parcel with your money, skimming off a slice of your savings – every turn. It’s called fractional scamming , it’s alive and well and the scammers are after your money.

Here’s how the FCA compare the pre and post adviser remuneration model (oops- I meant the “value chain”). Pre RDR it was called commission, post RDR it’s called “marketing fees”.

FCA – “non workplace pension review”

Fractional scamming works by sending money from one of those boxes on the bottom row to another, so that everyone gets a slice of the action.

$fraction 2$

So it’s all about distribution!

If you want to view the lesser-spotted overseas pensions introducer organising distribution, here’s John Ferguson

And here’s how he makes his money. courtesy of Angie Brooks and Pension Lite

I’ve been racking my brains…

I’ve been trying to remind myself of a UK investment structure that linked unauthorised introducers to authorised IFAS who worked with Pension Trustees to transfer money into overseas funds, but I just can’t remember the instance.

Somehow, Port Talbot, Dublin and Orpington came into the conversation. Hardly Dubai or Hong Kong…..

and then I saw this tweet and it got this horrible sense of deja vue

Bond Review – exposing unregulated investments – examined the Blackmore Bond! Take a look. https://t.co/H7IFvLiFBp @henryhtapper @CDML @ANGIEBROOKS11 @NJM71 @RedCircleFP @MENnewsdesk @frankfieldteam @CapronFrank @mark_iom @TheFCA

— Pension Scam Survivor (@mk14steve) March 12, 2018

If I’d mate it all up- so had this guy! Just like this Pension Scam Survivor, just like Angie Brooks.

I must have made it all up as I have a 12 Page letter from B**t Wils@n LLP (marked not for publication) telling me I had.

I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember what happened and now I realise it didn’t happen at all. And the You and Yours investigation that revealed all this is happening to the Pension Scam Survivor and the others, that was making it up too!

So was Bond Investor, whose beautifully written blog on Blackmore; that must be pure fantasy too!

We know that we must be liars, because all these guys’ solicitors tell us we are, and because John (Gus) Ferguson and David Vilka and Patrick McCreesh and Philip Nunn are still sunning themselves in Dubai, or Hong Kong or Spain .

And if we weren’t liars and these guys really did do the things that the BBC say they did, they surely would be under arrest – which they aren’t.

We get the financial services we deserve.

If we think it is ok that fractional scammers can carry on taking the p*** with our money, we can allow these guys to carry on – we can send them our money – we can indulge them their lavish lifestyles.

But if we think we deserve better, we ought to join with Angie Brooks and with all the good guys like Stephen Sefton, who are strong enough and admit to being a Pension Scam Survivor.

Because all the lawyers in London, cannot defend the venal behaviour that is going on today – and under our very noses.

noses

Posted in pensions | Tagged Angie Brooks, Blackmore, FCA, Fractional scams, John Ferguson, Jon Doglas, pensions, You and Yours | 4 Comments

Beyond the workplace – managing our pension saving legacy.

Posted on March 11, 2018 by henry tapper

metro bank magic

The FCA are consulting on the £400bn of pension assets that are not in workplace pensions. Implicit in the consultation is a desire to help those who depend on them in retirement to maximise these savings.

The savings are of questionable value; some are invested in the wrong funds, some are subject to extortionate charges and most have no obvious means of release as a wage for life or “pension”.

Assessing the value from their current management, the cost of that management and arranging a viable default means to spend these savings – should be the primary priority of the FCA.

Fortunately, it looks as if we may be able to do all three, if not tomorrow – at least in time for some people to get a better deal. Doing nothing is not an option, we have the means to clean up the legacy ; help is at hand. Let’s look at these three issues separately and return at the end of this blog to the holistic solution which people with such savings need.

Value

Mixed in with a lot of filth, there are some pearls. Genuinely good with profits contracts with guaranteed annuity rates, policies which carry good quality death benefits, some waivers of premium which are currently allowing accumulation to be insurance company funded.

And there are some very special self-invested personal pensions which are enabling the financially capable, or those with financially astute advisers, to manage their financial affairs within pension wrappers – with precision and acuity. John Mather and others – PACE!

There is also a lot of very good passively managed money, run within new style personal pensions, technically SIPPS, but for practical purposes, fulfilling the original intention of the stakeholder pensions. All of the above offer value, and I have no issue with these plans as a means of accumulating the capital to pay a retirement income.

But – and you knew there would be a “but”, there is one heck of a lot of filth.

Investments that made sense at the time but which have been taken over by changing economic circumstances (low interest rates for instance)]
Management that proved a flash in the pan – funds which now languish in the back office
Funds which were too big to succeed – the closet trackers

We all know the names of the providers – Allied Dunbar, Abbey Life, Crown Life etc.. but who remembers those top performing managers – the sexy Japanese warrant funds, the sophisticated broker managers that we gladly put our trust in? All offered value – most failed to deliver and few are accountable.

Money

The money we have paid to providers for the investment of our savings has – in many cases been eye watering. I have recently transferred an investment of many thousand pounds made in the mid eighties, at the value of the contributions – no more. I was promised equity returns, if i had got them , my fund would have been worth four times what I contributed. For no reason other than charges, I got a quarter of what a simple investment in a tracker would have delivered.

All the arguments about tax free cash, tax free growth and tax relief on contributions pale into insignificance against the carnage created by

Capital/Initial units
Accumulation units
Periodic contract management charges
Non-allocation periods
Bid/offer spreads
Dilution levies
90/10 with profits charging structures
Transaction costs within funds
Operational costs in switching (especially automated switch programs)
Paid up penalties
Exit penalties

The complex charging structures designed by private pension providers were designed to be fair. They shafted everyone.

If you tried to get out of a contract you were shafted by exit penalties

If you stayed in , you were shafted by the various initial and accumulation charges on the fund.

Thankfully, the 1% cap on exit penalties which has come in since 2016, means that those 55 or over, can at last get some relief from the incessant value destruction caused by the money we have had to pay.

However, the facts are , most 55 year olds don’t know what they are paying and don’t know there is any better.

The pension at the end of the tunnel?

The harsh truth is that there is no pension at the end of the tunnel, only an annuity or the freedom to go and spend your money as you choose.

That may sound inviting to those with little understanding of what it’s like to be alive and have no work, but it’s not much comfort if you are at the end of your working life and at the beginning of a long period when you’ll be on holiday on £8,500 a year.

When the tax-free cash runs out, there is a drawdown to come. But that draw-down is unlikely to provide a wage for life. Ordinary people who had expected a pension , are being delivered the hardest, nastiest problem in economics, dressed up as “pension freedom”.

There is no pension at the end of the tunnel.

Poor value – lost money and no light at the end of the tunnel.

That’s how legacy pensions are turning out for those who bought into Mrs Thatcher’s personal empowerment dream in the eighties and nineties. Things improved after the arrival of stakeholder pensions but even today, consumer protections are too weak and millions are being squandered daily on ridiculous self-invested strategies which look remarkably like the broker managed funds we thought we’d left behind twenty five years ago.

What we have not yet devised, is a means to look at what we have purchased and assess whether it gives us a value for money pension offering. The means to look at value and money pensions simply doesn’t exist.

It is not possible to type in your personal pension policy number and have a machine tell you

what value it has given you and what value is yet to come
what you have paid for it and what you have still to pay
The pension you are likely to get from your savings.

Could we build a machine to tell us the answers?

Yes we could. It would be a pension dashboard which had real purpose. A dashboard which had a diagnostic light for each legacy pension that you typed in.

Red light flashing – this pension is rubbish and you could and should get out now

Amber light flashing– this pension is rubbish but its questionable whether you should get out now

Green light flashing – this pension is alright and worth hanging on to.

Would that be advice? Yes i think it would, it would be a machine that would have had to have been kicked around in the FCA’s sandbox. The risk would be with the programmers and maintenance managers of the machine

Would that be guidance? Yes I think it would, it would be a machine that employers and other could promote without fear that they would be deemed “advisers”.

Would that be helpful? If you were able to tip in your pension legacy as easily as your old coins into the Magic Money Machine at Metro Bank

Not only does the technology exist, the Regulatory will is there as well.

We’ve had the technology to analyse funds, pension contracts and to deliver pensions from pots for some time. Until now, we did not have the Regulatory will to do anything with it.

Now, we have in the FCA and tPR, two regulators who seem to want to work together to ensure we can compare good with bad, whether it is in the workplace or not.

We finally have some kind of pension offering, emerging out of the fog created by pension freedom.

Before too long, we might have a way of comparing the retirement annuity contract I took out in 1984 with the SIPP I set up in 2014, the money in my trust based occupational scheme I joined in 1995 with the workplace pension I joined in 2012.

My hope is that ordinary people can – without having to consult with anything but a machine, be in a position to see what they have by way of value, what they are paying for it and a default option they have for this money in retirement.

They can then make easy choices based on clear information that might include employing an adviser.

If we could offer people the retirement equivalent of Metro Bank’s Magic Money Machine, then we’d have a pension dashboard worth talking about.

metro bank magic

Posted in pensions | Tagged CDC, Metro Bank, pensions, Retirement, stakeholder pensions, Value for Money, workplace Pensions | 2 Comments

My call for an end to contingent fees on DB pension transfers

Posted on March 9, 2018 by henry tapper

Calls to keep contingent pricing fall on my deaf ears.

I champion the pension rights of those with low incomes and I champion the rights of those likely to get lower pensions (women). I don’t champion the right of financial advisers to unlock CETVs for people without the cash to pay an upfront fee. This may sound paternalistic, it isn’t. Tax free-cash is provided to help people with freedom and choice and a pension is a wage for life. The tax incentives that go with pensions (whether DB or DC) are granted on the understanding that a pension is not a general source of later retirement wealth.

We have chosen to make CETV’s available to people with funded pensions but on certain terms. Those terms include the requirement that people take advice on whether the transfer is in their interests. We agree that generally a CETV is not in someone’s best interest.

I think it would be good that everyone owned their own house, but I do not think that 100% mortgages should be people’s be right. I do think that there should be stamp duty and that people should take legal advice as part of conveyancing. That’s because we know what happens when you have a frictionless house finance market.

I think it would be nice if everyone had good cars, fridges, sofas and could choose between private and public education and healthcare. But most people can’t because they don’t have the money.

Most people do not have the money to play “freedom and choice” on all their pension, that’s why the cash commutation was always limited to c25% of the notional pot.

Now some advisers consider the right to have freedom and choice on all their DB pension rights should be enshrined by giving contingent fees tax-breaks that make them the equivalent of a 110% mortgage. Forget it!

What follows is a briefing note that I sent to senior politicians in the hope that we might get a ban -at least on the tax-breaks- for contingent fees , in this year’s Finance Bill. My timing was all wrong and this note to was no avail, amendments were guillotined before the note was read.

But my campaign doesn’t end there. Expect to hear a lot more from me on this.

Need for legislation to protect members of DB schemes from harmful advice

The FCA sampling suggests 53% of those advised to transfer out have had questionable or wrongful advice. They consider that advice is event driven – as in BSPS’ Time to Choose when steel men faced a transfer guillotine. But there is evidence of mass evacuation – £.2bn left Barclays DB scheme in 2017, £2.8bn left Lloyds, the final amount leaving BSPS may exceed £3bn. Transfers are now business as usual for the 2500 authorised IFAs, it’s a nationwide feeding frenzy.

Not only is the advice to transfer questionable, so’s the destination of the money. The FCA are equally uncomfortable about the Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and with profits funds used to manage the emerging “wealth”.

Most of the advisers who recommend transfers, benefit from the management of the transferred money through discretionary fund management agreements within the SIPPS and from adviser charges paid by insurance companies running with-profits funds.

As if these conflicts weren’t enough, IFAs have now invented a system known as “contingent fees/charging” where they get paid from the transfers. So, members only have to pay an upfront fee if they don’t take up the advice to transfer. Unsurprisingly, most IFAs recommend transfers most of the time and their customers only feel the pain of “contingent fees” when they get to retirement.

This sloppy process means that IFAs can extract 1-2 or even 3% of a transfer value as a contingent fee to remove the money from the DB pension and then charge as much again every year to manage the funds. As the average transfer value from a DB scheme is £500,000, that means some advisers are routinely taking as much as £15,000 for a single piece of advice and a regular income running to thousands of pounds for doing very little.

What is worse, unlike honest upfront fees (which are paid out of taxed income and with VAT), contingent fees can be paid from the tax-exempt transfer value and (because of VAT exemptions on “intermediation” can be paid without incurring VAT). Inadvertently, HMRC is cross-subsidising malpractice.

In summary – there are three problems

Advisers are conflicted – they stand to gain from the transfer and are disincentivised to say “no” to a CETV
Advisers can use contingent fees which increase the conflict as an adviser’s fees using this kind of charging are painless (and tax-advantaged)
Instead of charging a fixed price for a job, an adviser can fix the contingent-fee as a percentage of fund- giving scope for absurdly high fees which often go unquestioned

I call upon all political parties to stop this transfer frenzy, by

Putting an end to the practice of charging contingent fees

Requiring separation from the advice to transfer and ongoing advice by requiring an adviser can do one or another (but not both)
Capping the fees charge for advice on transfer at £5,000
Ensuring that transfer advice is liable to VAT (and not paid for from a tax-exempt pension fund)

Posted in advice gap, pensions | Tagged advice, CETV, DB transfers, Debbie Abrahams, Frank Field, Guy Opperman, IFA, Jack Dromey, pensions, tax free cash | 3 Comments

Is the tide turning in the University pension dispute?

Posted on March 7, 2018 by henry tapper

tide turning

The lecturers at Oxford University have received a significant email. I don’t have the email but I have Mike Otsuka’s tweets of it.

louise richardson

This is how the dispute will be resolved. There is some powerful emotional intelligence at play here and I suspect that with negotiations in the hands of women like Louise Richardson, Janet Beer and Sally Hunt, we have rather more hope of a speedy resolution than were we leave it in the hands of us men!

UUK and UCU are back at ACAS today, after the hasty rearrangement yesterday. It seems that at last, some common sense is winning through.

If I’ve kept up: @UniversitiesUK took a decision reflecting a minority of its members, of which many were Oxbridge colleges, who deny they were ever formally represented, to undertake an action that is unnecessary, based on assumptions that are implausible. Right?!? #USSstrikes

— Rich Harris (@profrichharris) March 6, 2018

Let’s see if Cambridge follow suit.

🥁Drumroll pls🥁

Oxford, one of the key proponents of de-risking now reverses its response to @UniversitiesUK

THIS IS HUGE news, & demonstrates future of #USS still very much in our control. #UUKs claim that their risk survey remains legitimate increasing untenable. #USStrikes https://t.co/YV8TpTPi8T

— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 7, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Posted in pensions, USS | Tagged Cambridge University, Louise Richardson, Mike Otsuka, Oxford University, pensions, UCU, USS | 7 Comments

Pensions and Pornstar Martinis

Posted on March 6, 2018 by henry tapper

The Pornstar Martini

Question ; what have pensions and pornstar martinis got to do with each other

Answer; after announcing they would have a day off from negotiating, the UUK pension team appear to have deferred to the bar for some of these popular beverages.

Here is the press release following a hard two hours discussing pensions with the UCU

Employers willing to meet @ucu at any time or place to resolve pensions dispute – full statement after first day of talks at ACAS #USSstrikes pic.twitter.com/ZGexMABVBO

— Universities UK (@UniversitiesUK) March 5, 2018

and here is a report of a “lost tweet” from its press office

I can imagine A LOT of very awkward conversations at @UniversitiesUK offices tomorrow morning….But it’s OK. Who hasn’t had one too many Pornstar Martinis and drunk tweeted their organisation into a corner? #USSstrike #pornstarmartini #UUK

— Natasha Saunders (@NEGSaunders) March 5, 2018

Martini gate, as it will surely be known, comes at the end of a bad day for the Universities UK pension negotiating team who now appear to have done a post-martini u-turn.

No confirmation yet from #UUK re apparent Twitter deal with #UCU to resume ACAS talks tomorrow. It is late, however, and will check for an update in the morning.

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) March 5, 2018

Time was when it was the boozy “beer and sandwiches” brigade of the far-left who could be relied on for inebriate rambling. Now it’s the bosses who are proving themselves drunk and disorderly.

Time was that it was the unions who were up to vote rigging, now its the bosses.

Timely reminder:
1)UUK issued an impt risk survey with insufficient time for recipients to consult & respond.
2)they surveyed parties they shouldnt have, making survey invalid
3)they presented opinions of surveyed parties as being valid, despite being told they weren’t #usstrike https://t.co/l2AeQ4PoNk

— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 5, 2018

UUK are not behaving and have not behaved any differently than the picture painted by the recent Channel 4 dispatches documentary, which painted some Vice Chancellors as out of touch , extravagant and venal.

This blog has carried a number of serious articles from senior lecturers such as Dennis Leach and Mike Otsuka that coherently argue the case to continue to let lecturers accrue defined benefit pensions as part of their remuneration.

There is no intellectual weight behind the philosophical arguments of UUK and no financial weight in their claims they cannot afford to pay the expected pensions.

Instead there is growing concern, not just within the Universities, but without, that its governance – epitomised by certain Vice-Chancellors – is incompetent.

UUK – back down now.

I speak as a parent of a university student who – though he gets no current teaching, supports the strike. I also speak as a card-carrying member of the conservative party.

I have no natural inclination to support industrial action by unions.

However, everything I have and am reading about the conduct of this pensions strike suggests that it is the unions who are behaving responsibly and the UUK who are not.

It is time for the UUK to accept that they are losing the argument and back down.

Email from @ucu about @UniversitiesUK rejection of talks tomorrow.

Apparently they are ‘not yet ready to respond’. Let’s hope this means their position is significantly shifting. #USSstrikes pic.twitter.com/wEDpFkqqh5

— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 5, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Posted in pensions | Tagged pensions, Pornstar, Pornstar Martinis, UCU, USS, UUK | Leave a comment

The CMA and IDWG are looking for the right grubs under the wrong stones.

Posted on March 4, 2018 by henry tapper

The Competition and Markets Authority has produced the first of a series of working papers (only 90 pages) looking at the buy-side of institutional intermediation (e.g. what happens between buying an asset and the return the customer gets).

“The evidence reviewed so far indicates that competitive processes are not providing customers with the necessary information to judge the value for money of investment consultants and fiduciary managers.

“The potential competition concern with this is that customers are not well-equipped to choose, and subsequently monitor the performance of, their provider and in turn to drive competition between investment consultants, and between fiduciary managers.”

For investment consultant – read “financial adviser” and for “fiduciary manager” read “discretionary fund manager” and you can read straight across from institutional to retail.

Vertical integration – the practice where advisers morph into wealth managers, means financial advisers and investment consultants are becoming little more than the sales people who bring the money in and keep the customers quiet. (distribution and customer relationship management)

The lines between retail and institutional are further blurred by the “intermediation” going on within our great DB schemes. The news that total CETVs paid from Barclays DB scheme were £4.2bn in 2017, should be attracting the CMA’s attention. £4.2bn is a pretty meaty slab of cash, representing the assets of some of our largest DB plans.

And yet it is being taken on a journey that the FCA has analysed as follows

Following the FCA’s methodology, only £1.5bn of that money would have found a “suitable” recommended product. £2.75bn of that money was destined to unsuitable products – or products where the suitability was unclear.

Where is the money going?

We don’t need to be Hercule Poirot, to make some connections. Here is the Tideway pitch (made ironically to the Group Head of Pensions at one of the banking schemes most impacted by transfers in 2017)

Tideway Investment Partners LLP is an independently-owned financial advice and investment management business, specialising in providing defined benefit pension transfer advice and secure investment portfolios. Up to the end of 2017, we had completed around 1,400 transfers with a large number of them deferred members of the Lloyds Bank schemes.

We have a number of free workshops around the country throughout March 2018, covering the pros and cons of transferring out. Given that we have already successfully represented Lloyds scheme members when they transferred out, we thought we would contact you in case you were able to share details of the events with any of your deferred members or any active members approaching retirement.

Our workshops are as follows

6 March 2018, Chepstow

7 March, Manchester

14 March, London

20 March, Norwich

28 March, Aberdeen

Registration details can be found on our website at www.finalsalarytransfer.com.

The events will be hosted by Tideway managing partner James Baxter, widely acknowledged as a leading UK commentator on DB transfers, and often quoted in leading national business/personal finance pages. James regularly appears in the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, along with the Times, Sunday Times and the FT.

Tideway are quite comfortable with this kind of language, as well they should be. Tideway partners (members) presented their report and accounts for 2017 with this statement

The same hyperbolic results were presented to the shareholders of St James’ Place

St. James’s Place Annual results for the year ended 31 December 2017

28 Jul 2017

RECORD BUSINESS PERFORMANCE SUPPORTS 30% INCREASE IN FULL YEAR DIVIDEND

View the financial highlights and CEO commentary below for the year ended 31 December 2017.

St. James’s Place plc (“SJP”), the wealth management group, today issues its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2017 – read the press release.

	2017	2016	% uplift
EEV New business profits (£m)	779.8	520.2	50%
EEV Operating profits (£m)	918.5	673.6	36%
IFRS profit before shareholder tax (£m)	186.1	140.6	32%
Operating cash result (post tax £m)	315.2	226.0	39%
Underlying cash result (post tax £m)	281.2	199.5	41%
Underlying cash earnings (pence per share)	53.6	38.2	40%

The horse that bolted -is now re-stabled

Despite these eye-watering depletions of our DB schemes and the equally eye-watering increases in shareholder and member returns from these vertically integrated wealth managers , nobody seems to be making any connection.

But anyone familiar with the ways of retail wealth management and institutional fiduciary management will see precisely the same business model at work.

The main difference is that the margins achievable in the retail space are even higher than those in the institutional space.

I have the same message for Dr Sier and the IDWG as I do for the CMA – follow the money.

We can no longer consider CETVs a retail issue, nor can we consider Tideway, SJP or the major platform managers (Hargreaves, Nucleus, Aviva, Transact, Co-funds etc.) as retail platforms.

The scale of transfers is now so great and the speed of movement of money so fast, that by the time the IDWG has completed its template, many of the horses will have bolted. True they may have been re-captured and put into new stables, but those stables – so long as they are “retail stables” will fall outside the scope of the IDWG and CMA’s institutional reviews.

Whatever happened to the disintermediated solution?

We have an odd understanding of wealth. My browser is flooded with adverts from wealth managers telling me that with £250,000 I am a wealthy pensioner. But £250k wouldn’t even buy me my entitlement to the state basic pension.

People who find themselves with CETV’s worth quarter of a million or more, are being told they are wealthy and channelled into wealth management solutions. Pension managers I speak to speak of tens if not hundreds of members joining the same SIPP with monies being allocated to the same DFM. A classic example of this is the use of the Vega Algorithm within Momentum and Intelligent SIPPs by steelworkers at Port Talbot.

The idea of a SIPP was that it was “self-invested”, but that’s not what the steelworkers were and are expecting.

Most steelworkers I’ve spoken to are simply swapping one set of fiduciaries (trustees and their CIO Hugh Smart) for another set of fiduciaries (advisers and their CIO – ?).

The “wealth solutions” being offered to most Port Talbot steelworkers were almost certainly falling into the “unsuitable” or “unclear” categories established by the FCA. This is why Port Talbot has become the focus for thinking about a “transfer scandal”.

But Port Talbot is no more than the tip of an iceberg that’s huge underwater mass is now emerging through Barclays reporting – a £4,151,000,000 pension scheme CETV in 2017.

Barclays has a very good workplace pension scheme (run by Legal and General on fabulous terms for the members).

Lloyds Banking Group has a self-administered workplace pension scheme (with charges paid for by the Bank)

Tata and Liberty have workplace pension schemes run by Aviva and L&G respectively, both have default options which cost less than 0.30% of funds under management.

Compare this with a typical advisory charge (1%), platform charge (0.40%), DFM charge (0.5%) and underlying asset management charge (1%) and you can see how easily an intermediated “wealth” solution can cost 10 times the non-intermediated workplace solution. In a world where expected drawdowns run at 4-5% of assets, a 2.7% charge cap between the workplace and wealth solution represents a 50% cut in post retirement income. And this is before account of transaction charges.

The disintermediated solution has a stable all of its own, but no CETVs ever end up there!

A money merry-go-round where everyone wins but the consumer

We of course know why. The “Tideways” and the “SJPs” are not alone. Up and down the country, the DFMs of IFAs are filling up with monies transferred from defined benefit occupational schemes though a practice called conditional pricing.

Tideway are perhaps the most vocal advocates of conditional fees, I have even given Peter Doherty, its CEO, a platform on this blog to argue his case. The argument is that by paying your fees out of your transferred fund, you can afford the transfer in the first place. This argument is given credence by a tax system that allows intermediaries to avoid charging VAT at 20% on advisory fees taken from the transferred fund and allows those fees to be paid from a tax-privileged source (a pension fund) rather than from taxed income.

I am quite sure that everyone from accountants to solicitors envy the privilege accorded wealth managers to levy fees to “wealthy clients” without VAT and from a tax-free fund.

That we – the taxpayers – are offering this privilege to the vast majority of those transferring from BSPS, Barclays, Lloyds and many other well-run DB schemes is beyond me.

Why we are using tax-payers money to reward the advisers , shareholders and partners of Tideway, SJP and other wealth managers is beyond me.

And why we are not banning contingent pricing and with it the conflicts associated with recommending an in-house wealth management solution over non-intermediated workplace pension solutions is also beyond me.

The wrong stones

As for the CMA and IDWG, I fear they are looking for the right grubs, but under the wrong stones!

Posted in advice gap, brand, BSPS, pensions | Tagged CETV, chris sier, CMA, IDWG, James Baxter, pensions, Port Talbot, Tideway, Transfer | 2 Comments

It is time to ban contingent charging on DB transfers.

Posted on March 3, 2018 by henry tapper

The argument for contingent charging (in abstract)

The best case for contingent charging appears on this blog and it’s made by Pete Doherty, Managing Partner and CIO of Tideway. I published this blog to provide balance and to create debate. This is the nub of his argument..

Now that we better understand the breakdown of fees into “commoditised” and “value-added” components, it is obvious that for DB Transfers a non-contingent fee structure would simply increase the total fee pool for advisers.

In a world where everyone pays the same fee irrespective of transferring or not, the fee charged for completing a DB Transfer would not go down. That fee is paid for detailed and complex advice around an irreversible transaction and, as described above, represents an insurance policy against future claims. With non-contingent fees the whole DB Transfer population – the scheme members – could only be worse off.

Under the logic of non-contingent charging, the fee for doing nothing must be the same as for doing something, otherwise there is an explicit subsidy and that is not allowed either. So, all that would happen with the introduction of non-contingent fees is that thousands of customers would be charged thousands of pounds for “not doing something“.

Does anyone think that equality and fairness comes from charging someone £ 10,000 to make no change to their financial circumstances? That cannot be right.

These arguments were made, at the time of the Great British Transfer Debate. At that event, Rory Percival made an alternative argument. He pointed out that in practice, contingent fees could open the sluice-gates and empty the pond. Rory has been proved right.

Last week, Barclays published the amount its pension scheme had paid out in transfers in 2017. It was a staggering £4,152,000,000. A figure of just under £3bn is reported by Lloyds. Financial institutions are reported to have been most affected by transfers, probably because they have de-risked further (with higher CETVs resulting from lower discount rates) and because their members tend to be more financially self-confident.

But the fact remains that these numbers are business as usual. The FCA may have thought that BSPS was a one-off but they are wrong. While BSPS was unusual for a blue-collar scheme, the peculiar circumstances of “Time to Choose” has merely pushed it into the territory of the de-risked schemes – typically the banks. The average CETV from BSPS- after the 5% clip for insufficiency, was paying around 25 times the prospective pension, the average CETV from the gilt-based schemes like Lloyds and Barclays – around 40 times.

BSPS was special, only in that disrespect for the covenant and a time-bound transfer period herded behaviours into a mass emigration.

The FCA has no idea of the scale of transfers across the entire DB constituency. Barclays (I suspect) published the CETV figure to explain how their DB fund had gone down, rather than to alert the FCA. There is no statutory requirement on trustees to publish the outflows from CETVs either to the Pensions Regulator, the FCA or indeed the PRA.

KPMG have told me, they estimate the take up of CETVs across the DB piece to be c£6bn. I now know this to be a wild underestimate. I would be surprised if it was less than £60bn. The KPMG underestimate is likely to be (lack of) evidenced based. Where there is no systemic reporting, under-reporting is the likeliest outcome.

Why have CETVs become business as usual

The principal reasons for the massive increase in transfers (CETV pay outs quadrupled from 2016 to 2017 at Barclays) can be ascribed to three things

Telephone number transfer values driving consumer behaviour
Advisers like Tideway seeing waking up to an opportunity
The practice of charging contingent fees that made a transfer painless.

I see no reason for the speed of transfers to slow down. Employers are relieved to get liabilities off balance sheet at well below their accounting cost.

Trustees and the Pensions Regulator see the solvency of their scheme being technically adjusted in the right direction.

Advisers, product providers and asset managers share in the dispersal of institutionally managed assets into higher margin advised retail assets.

The FCA has no understanding of the true nature of the problem. As at Port Talbot, they are blind-sided by a lack of evidence and a lack of day to day communication with people on the factory floor (in this case the administrators of the DB pension schemes like Barclays).

Time for change

I am reluctantly calling for a change in the law. We have a Finance Bill coming up and I call for it to contain a section banning the use of contingent fees for those advising on transfer values.

My argument for this is simple. It is Al Cunningham’s defence.

People who transfer must consider themselves in special need of a transfer.

The FCA in its sampling of CETV transfer advice has found that 53% of cases they examined showed either questionable or wrongful advice. If we are to accept the sampling methodology (and I do), we can infer that over £2bn of Barclays transfers and £1.5bn of Lloyds Bank transfers were questionably advised (or worse).

FCA CETV advice

The FCA found no good reason for 53% of the people advised, to have taken their transfers.

By banning contingent charging , the FCA will make itself hugely unpopular. It will outrage those advisers, like Tideway (who claim to have done 1400 transfers over the period). They will be open to claims that they are closing the door on freedom and choice. They will be shouted at by the people who now have to fund transfer advice out of their own pocket. This will not be a popular move.

But the simple argument remains. If you have a special reason to transfer, you will find a way to meet fees upfront and in full.

All of the evidence I have from advisers is that by moving away from contingent fees, they see levels of transfers fall of a cliff. People see the need for a transfer disappear when they are asked to find the means to pay for the advice in advance of the advice being given.

I would add a second question.

If you cannot find a means to pay for your transfer advice, can you really afford to manage your own retirement finances?

It’s a matter of conviction

I’ve been an IFA, now I work for actuaries; I helped people transfer, I now advise trustees and advisers on transfers. I am convinced that the FCA are right and that at least half of the transfers that are made are questionably or wrongfully advised. Questionable advice amounts to wrongful advice, there has to be a special reason to transfer and in more than 50% of the cases the FCA have looked at, there is no special reason.

If you have conviction , as I do, of the value of a pension, then you will be heartbroken to see the Barclays, Lloyds and BSPS numbers. I am especially heart-broken because I know of many other instances where schemes are being denuded of future pensioners because of questionable advice delivered on a frictionless basis through contingent fees.

Pete Doherty’s arguments are based on abstract notions that have not been born out in reality. The reality is the evidence that is coming to light and is laid out in this blog.

This blog is simply an extension of the blogs I wrote after my time in Port Talbot. It extends the call to action to meet the particular challenge of the sausage and chip brigade, with the wider challenge presented by contingent fees.

I call on all who have conviction that schemes pensions remain the best way of providing people with retirement security to join me. We need a change in the law. We need the charging of contingent fees to be banned.

Enforcement

I have heard it argued that smart advisers and their clients would find a way to be compliant and still be complicit in the taking of contingent fees.

They reckon without the impact of legislation on Professional Indemnity Insurers. If a PI insurer was to spot such practices, they could withdraw cover or increase premiums to the extent that no sensible adviser could stay in the market.

If the Financial Ombudsman was armed with principal based legislation that allowed him to look through to the contingent fee and see deliberate avoidance of the ban, then enforcement would be through the financial restitution met by the PI insurer. My experience of PI is that material non-disclosure would invalidate claims.

Any adviser who thinks that a ban on contingent fees is unenforceable by the FCA, reckons without the power of FOS and PI.

Posted in pensions | Tagged Action, CETV, contingent charging, contingent fees, enforcement, pensions, Tideway, transfers | 4 Comments

Barclays numbers point to transfer carnage happening today.

Posted on March 1, 2018 by henry tapper

barclays full

I am staring with disbelief at p304 of the Barclays Report and Accounts 2017 which contains this statement.

Of the £4,927m (2016: £1,800m) UKRF benefits paid out (in 2017), £4,151m (2016: £1,029m) related to transfers out of the fund.

The total assets of the Barclays fund at the start of the year were £31,8bn and at the end of the year £30.1bn. Contributions to the scheme were just over £1bn.

So nearly 14% of the fund was transferred in one year, four times the contributions. When you consider that a large proportion of the assets of the scheme relate to pensioners, that suggests that the level of transfers is running at over 20% of transferrable assets.

If the FCA’s sampling is as good as it usually is, that means that over £2bn of this money was subject to questionable advice and might better have stayed where it was.

A repeatable number

At Lloyds Banking Group, I’m told DB transfers ran at just below £3bn. We can only assume transfers at RBS and HSBC weren’t far behind.

KPMG’s estimate of total transfers last year stands at £6bn, a figure we now know was outrun by just 2 of the 7000 schemes not in the PPF.

What’s more, transfers out of Barclays DB scheme were up four times on 2016. This is nothing to do with Pension Freedoms which were just as tantalising in 2015 as 2017. Transfer values would have been higher in 2017 with the discount rate falling from 2.8% to 2.4%. But even so, the exponential growth in transfers out is mysterious.

Why so quiet?

One reason for Barclays keeping so quiet may be that the transfers have been very helpful to scheme funding (now at 109%). The accounts make reference

The improvement in funding position between 30 September 2016 and 30 September 2017 was largely due to payment of deficit contributions, higher than assumed asset returns, higher Government bond yields, and transfers out of the scheme.

Neither the trustees or the Pensions Regulator are going to mind too much. The scheme is 109% solvent, even if that solvency was achieved by losing £2bn_ of “liabilities” , through questionable advice to an unknown destination

Indeed, as the transfers are calculated on a best estimate basis and the liabilities are accounted for by the Bank at mark to market, the balance sheet will have seen a marked improvement from all these people leaving the scheme. Shareholders and market commentators are hardly going to lament the freeing up of the balance sheet. That £2bn of the liabilities have been shed (to unknown sources), is no business of the employer.

Nor are the financial services organisations that received the proceeds of these transfers going to be too concerned. St James Place announced its results this week. In reporting on these statements

In his report, chief executive Andrew Croft stated:

‘In the past year, we have seen increased activity around pension transfers, driven in part by the flexibility afforded around defined contribution schemes following the introduction of pensions freedoms but also due to increased transfer values.

‘Transferring out of defined benefit schemes is not without considerable risk and complexity which requires expert bespoke advice, so we have naturally been relatively cautious in recommending such a course of action, but we expect this to be an area of heightened interest for clients and one which we will continue to manage carefully in the years ahead.’

Note the cautious and restrained tone. Having worked in an SJP type environment, I would be surprised if the thought of £4bn+ pa free money did not excite the passing thought “fill ya boots”.

And finally there are the former members, who now have wealth beyond their wildest dreams. While the average DC pot is still below £40,000, the average DB CETV is over ten times that. Except in the Tai Bach rugby club (for a while), you aren’t going to hear too many former members shouting about the glut of transfers, they’re all too busy counting the noughts in their SIPP accounts.

Indeed , in this topsy-turvy world, everyone’s a winner. As Dave Thompson sums up in the comments on this blog

It’s all about Hyperbolic Discounting or Jam today as Rory Percival explains so eloquently. ” I want my money now so I can live for today, everyone wins, I get my money, HMRC gets their tax quicker, DB schemes reduce liabilities. Fund managers get aum, Adviser firms get funds under management much quicker than encouraging regular savings” George Osborne did us all a favour.

Reasons to be noisy 1-2-3

Many advisers are happy to boast about their caution, but somebody has been busy with Lloyds and Barclays, I hear stories of transfer mayhem in towns as far removed as Dagenham and Halifax, Port Talbot and Redcar.

I see the BSPS Facebook pages and they are filled with the delighted stories of steelworkers who are out, The last recorded number for transfers in Time to Choose was £1.1bn (early Jan), my estimate for the total transfers by the end of March isn’t shy of £3bn (even with the FCA interventions).

The KPMG £6bn number is manageable – but if the number is in reality ten times that, and it could well be, that shows an exodus from DB funds that is deeply worrying.

I think it’s worth making a lot of noise about the Barclays numbers because they are truly frightening. I am not saying that 14% of all DB assets are offski, but if they were, we would be seeing a transfer out of DB plans of well over £100bn.

Stick a pin on the donkey’s tail somewhere between £6bn and £100bn and you are looking at the depletion of defined benefit assets caused by the 2017 transfer frenzy.

That may not be a cause for concern for employers, trustees , SIPP providers and asset managers, but it should worry Government and it should worry those of us wanting to restore confidence in pensions.

It’s time that a proper audit was done on the accounts not just of Barclays, but of all the large DB occupational pensions in the private sector. If we can’t measure the extent of transfers , we can’t work out if we have a problem. The current measure of £6bn is clearly wrong; we need a new number.

Those Barclays Pension Numbers in Full (p304 – Report and Accounts 2017)

Thanks to FT adviser for the re-post

Thanks to Maria Espadinha, of FT adviser for her article on this subject which you can read here. Maria has been a force for good in recent months in helping a wider audience get an understanding of these complicated and difficult issues.

Posted in pensions | 5 Comments

How do I rate my various pensions?

Posted on February 27, 2018 by henry tapper

Following the publication of yesterday’s Guidance from the DWP on “DC pension” disclosures, this article asks “have we any framework for answering the question in the title?”.

The conclusion is “not yet”, thought the disclosure guidance takes us another step towards a common measurement system which can allow us to compare our “SIPPs,” “auto-enrolment pensions” and “company schemes”.

That I struggle to find a consistent language to embrace three different parts of the market is part of the problem. Our defined contribution schemes operate in distinct bubbles, with little means to talk of “retirement savings” as a single entity.

Let’s try a little harder and organise our savings options into the same three buckets but this time use the titles that the Regulators are using.

Non workplace pensions (SIPPs)

As a nation we have around £400bn of retirement savings in private “non workplace” pensions. Some of us executed our private pension (Hargreaves Lansdowne) , most of us were advised (SJP or pre-RDR personal pension or SIPP platform), and a few of us are using the remains of a workplace pension which was jettisoned into our ownership when we left a former employer. It’s a messy market which the FCA are currently trying to knock into shape. For most of us, it’s pot luck as to whether our savings are working for us or for the retirement savings provider.

Workplace pensions (Auto-enrolment pensions)

This is a much more ordered market, still small compared with the mature non-workplace pension market, but growing with the advance of auto-enrolment.

Despite the high degree of Government control , this remains a diverse market containing trust and contract based schemes which flourish or fail depending on their commerciality. With the exception of NEST, which really is too big to fail, all the workplace pensions are competing against existential threats. Two of the leading workplace pensions (NOW pensions and Standard Life) will likely be under new ownership by the end of the year.

Ironically , Standard Life have gone wrong by assuming employers will buy something that looks like a SIPP (Good to Go) while NOW pensions have used a product that looks like a paternalistic occupational DC pension.

Many smaller master-trusts are currently deciding whether to continue under the more rigorous conditions created by PA16.

But general awareness among buyers (employers) and savers (employees) of the state of their workplace pensions’ fortunes is as low as ever. If the OFT were to return today, I doubt they would revise their 2014 statement. OFT

Single occupation schemes

The DC schemes set up by employers for their own staff should be the crème de la crème, the benchmark against which non-workplace and workplace pensions set themselves.

But this is very far from the case. While the best schemes are very good indeed, many are beset by problems of their own making. The richest employers are too often beguiled by bogus consultancy-driven strategies involving “white-labelled funds”, “liability driven investments”, over-engineered communications and under-engineered administration. These schemes are beset by the vanity that comes from unconstrained budgets, offered DC trustees by guilty employers aware they are selling mutton dressed as lamb.

And behind the first wave of trophy schemes with their PQM kite-marks, is a dark web of semi-derelict occupational schemes that struggle along because employers feel that as they’ve started – they should finish.

Far from being an example of excellence, the single occupational schemes are an example of a free-market gone wild. A thousand flowers bloom in this meadow. but as many weeds.

How do we compare one with another?

Writing in today’s FT, Jo Cumbo compares the Australian’s engagement with pensions and concludes that they are saving four times as much as us, partly because they know what they are saving into and have confidence in their “super”

Australians are not shy about talking about their super. In fact, they can get positively competitive about how well their pensions pot is doing. This is largely due to the fact they have choice over where their super is invested and do not have to stay with the fund chosen by their employer, a feature of the UK system which sees billions languishing in poorly performing “dog” default funds.

There are many comparison websites that allow investors to rate their super on a range of measures from charges and investments options to insurance and death cover.

Newspapers frequently publish league tables of the best-performing super funds, with the top 10 accounts achieving over 10 per cent, net of investment fees, in 2017. This generates a culture of competitiveness between super funds in a way which is yet to be seen in the UK workplace pension market.

There is currently , no such culture in the UK

Many people who have been saving for their retirement twenty or thirty years, will have examples of all three types of pension. Quite naturally, they’ll be looking to bring all these pots together into one single pot and working out which pot to use going forward.

They may employ an adviser, who typically nowadays is a wealth manager who will advise all pots aggregate to the wealth management solution on offer from the advisory firm. There is no way for the ordinary consumer to test if this is a good idea, this is a worry.

Many people will not have an adviser and will consequently feel disempowered to aggregate. Typically these people will be unaware of where they are getting value and what money they are paying. We don’t even know the rules of engagement. For instance, very few people know that exit penalties on non-workplace pensions dramatically fall away on their 55th birthday.

The non-advised are therefore acting in the dark. There is some “lux in tenebris” from organisations such as Pensions Bee, Evestor, Nutmeg and other progressive aggregators and there are new organisations such as Hulgrave who are looking to put information into the market which can help us understand value, but there is still no “GO COMPARE” for pensions.

GO COMPARE FOR PENSIONS.

There is a simple way for us to assess what we have by way of “good” or “bad”. The test is called “value for money” and requires a commonly agreed measure of “value” and “money”. Till very recently, the best we had to hope for, was the “single charge” which is disclosed to us as the cost of management.

Here is another extract from that 2014 OFT report

oft-true-and-fair

Four years on and we are nearing a point where we have a manually completed template that will allow IGCs and Trustees to understand the total cost of the funds that their providers choose to invest our money into.

In a couple of years, we can hope to have automatic feeds from asset mangers which will prevent “cheating” and bring down the cost of gathering this information.

Meanwhile, we are struggling even to get consistent accurate reporting on value within sectors. If I want to compare NEST with Standard Life’s default, I have to wait till NEST send me their unit prices (up to a month after the price was created) and I have to apply through a price vendor (Morningstar of Financial Express) for price history on Standard Life.

There is no table showing performance data, let alone risk adjusted performance, let alone the costs incurred in getting that performance.

And that’s just the funds bit of it! The value we get from a workplace pension is the combination of the net performance of the investments and the experience we have of using the pension (both now and in the future). We are a long way for agreeing a value for money formula that can compare workplace, non-workplace and occupational pension schemes.

Leaving other forms of retirement savings (ISAs) out of this, we need to embark on creating a means for ordinary people and ordinary advisers to have access to tables that can compare the value for money of all retirement savings vehicles where we – the punters- are bearing the performance risk.

The DWP’s disclosure paper, is a step in the right direction. The work of the IDWG in creating a template is another, MIFID II and Priips help and the clearance work from the Transparency Taskforce is important too.

But we need more than all this, we do need the co-operation of all parties in a general endeavour to make saving for retirement easier and fairer for those of us doing it.

That’s one of the ways we restore confidence in pensions. pensionplaypencomingsoon

Posted in auto-enrolment, pension playpen, pensions, Sage | Tagged DWP, OFT, pension playpen, pensions, VFM, workplace Pensions | Leave a comment

HMRC’s pension taxation; the Scottish question.

Posted on February 26, 2018 by henry tapper

Scottish tax

The HMRC’s position on pension taxation reached new heights of barminess last week, with its decision to let the new “19% Scottish taxpayers” receive 20% relief at source. This is Apparantly one of those problems that gets put in the too difficult box.

But while it’s fine to give away tax to troublesome Scots, some of the most vulnerable of British citizens, low-earners in net pay schemes get 0% rather than 20%!

If you don’t believe me – it’s all here in the latest HMRC pensions newsletter!

One law for the poor

Net pay

Members of pension schemes who get pension tax relief through the ‘net pay’ mechanism have their pension contributions deducted before Income Tax is applied to their pay, so only pay tax on what’s left. Pension tax relief on these contributions will continue to be given by default at members’ marginal rate of tax, including the new and newly increased Scottish rates.

One law for the rich

Relief at Source

If you are the administrator of a pension scheme using the relief at source mechanism, you will continue to claim tax relief at the rate of 20% for members who are Scottish taxpayers.

For pension scheme members who are Scottish taxpayers liable to income tax at no more than the Scottish starter rate of 19%, or who pay no tax, current tax rules will continue to apply. This means that scheme administrators will continue to claim relief at 20% in respect of these individuals, and HMRC will not recover the difference between the Scottish starter and Scottish basic rate.

And special treatment for the richer

Pension scheme members who are Scottish taxpayers liable to income tax at the Scottish intermediate rate of 21% will be entitled to claim the additional 1% relief due on some or all of their contributions above the 20% tax relief paid to their scheme administrators.

These pension scheme members will be able to claim the additional relief for 2018 to 2019 by contacting HMRC if they don’t already complete Self Assessment returns, or through their return if they do. HMRC will engage with stakeholders to help affected members claim this additional tax relief.

Pension scheme members who are Scottish taxpayers liable to Income Tax at the Scottish higher rate (41%) and Scottish top rate (46%) will be able to claim additional relief on their contributions up to their marginal rate of tax in the usual way, either in their Self Assessment tax return or if they don’t complete a tax return by contacting HMRC.

What kind of hypocrisy is this?

It is high-time HMRC was called for it’s pensions hypocrisy.

It is prepared to invent all kinds of special processes to accommodate the wealthy Scots , but is unprepared to help the poorest members of society who have – under auto-enrolment , been nudged into pension savings with the promise of a 4+3+1% contribution structure. If anyone is unaware, the employee is supposed to pay 4, the employer pays 3 and the Treasury pays 1% into the pension pot.

For hundreds of thousands of low-paid pension savers, (including a fair few Scots), the Treasury 1% simply won’t arrive.

That’s because under net pay, the tax-relief members get is in line with their marginal rate of tax – 0%. Meanwhile, the Scottish low-paid in Relief at Source schemes get more than basic rate tax relief! It’s barmy, it’s hypocritical and it’s just plain wrong.

Who runs these net pay schemes?

The vast majority of occupational pension schemes – including most master trusts (Peoples, Nest and Smart excluded) – still run net pay schemes.

They say that their systems won’t let them run under relief at source and they aren’t allowed to split schemes to run the low earners under RAS and the high earners under net pay.

So these schemes continue to offer immediate tax-relief through pay-code adjustments to their tax-paying members and nothing at all to those who are tax-exempt.

These large occupational schemes seem disinterested in this matter, as does the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association that ludicrously offers a Pension Quality Mark to net pay schemes.

I’ll continue to shout about it as the contribution problem gets worse

In April, Auto-enrolment contributions for employees treble, the following April they increase again from 3 to 5%. Actually that 5% should be 4% as the 1% “incentive” for the low paid should ease the burden. But no such luck in sight for low earners on net pay who will have to pay 100% of the increases!

An unfair taxation practice that’s about to get 5 times bigger!

HMRC is so powerful that few people want to speak out about this unfair taxation. I’m grateful to my contacts in payroll who pick up on these things and feed me the information. It would be good for the CIPP and CIPD to follow me in on this. I will be sending them this blog.

But the people who should be doing something about this are not the payroll bodies but the HMRC.

Come on HMRC, if you can tweak the system to reward the rich, you can do the same to help the poor.

If you don’t then you will rightly be called hypocrites, arguing that we pay our tax fairly, but giving all the tax-breaks to those with the deepest pockets.

rich10

Posted in pensions | Tagged auto enrolment, HMRC, net-pay, pensions, relief at source, Scotlan, Scottish Income Tax | 6 Comments

Standard Phoenixed.

Posted on February 25, 2018 by henry tapper

phoenix 1

There are few examples, since the demise of Equitable Life, quite so ignominious, as the end to Standard Life.

Standard Life Assurance Limited is being sold to Phoenix Life for just £3.2bn , part of which will be paid to Standard Aberdeen in shares of Phoenix Life. It can be argued that the cross share-holding will mean that Standard Aberdeen still has an alignment of interest in the success of the new venture and some residual interests in the fate of its policy holders. But in practice, it is selling off its life insurance business and with it, its responsibility for the retirement outcomes of its workplace savings business.

“Good to go”

In hindsight, calling the workplace pensions product “good to go” was prophetic, it is indeed going and to what extent employers with Standard Life workplace pensions will find these good to go, we have yet to find out.

A few years ago , Standard Life was the default provider of workplace pensions. They achieved this by aggressive pricing (the most attractive propositions – such as the GPP they offered staff at Logica – had an all in price of 0.10%). This was backed up by a well-acclaimed investment proposition – fronted by the GARS fund and the outstanding reputation of Standard Life as a consumer brand. Standard Life were IFA friendly, offering attractive commissions on new business prior to the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review.

But since RDR and the introduction of auto-enrolment, Standard Life haves been supplanted first by Legal and General, who undercut them and out-marketed them to pick up most of the attractive AE business, in 2013 and 2014, and latterly by low-cost, high-impact master trusts who have hovered up the majority of the smaller businesses entering workplace pensions from 2015.

The disastrous performance of GARS over the past few years has not helped, but what has really hurt Standard Life was its failure to come up with a compelling proposition at a reasonable price . “Good to Go” may have been attractively named , but it was too expensive and inflexible for a market that wanted its functionality for free and saw little to admire about an investment proposition that was not delivering.

Along with NOW pensions, Standard Life is the great casualty of Auto-Enrolment. Had Standard Life Assurance, got it right (as L&G and B&CE did) , then its workplace pension would not have been “Phoenixed” and might have actually made the whole Standard Life proposition, a bit more attractive to Standard Life Aberdeen.

It’s Aberdeen with a big A and Standard with a small s

I must stop calling Standard Life Aberdeen that – undoubtedly, the total loss of the life business, including its live “workplace business” makes Aberdeen the predominate partner. Aberdeen has stripped Standard Life of its investment and platform business assets and spat out the pips on Phoenix.

Whether selling off the rival business to Scottish Widows, will be enough to attract back the £109bn of LBG assets, I very much doubt. The word on the street is that the money is in Aberdeen’s cul-de-sac and the only way for it is “out”.

The only winner in Aberdeen Standard is Martin Gilbert, who has now a firm grip on a diminished business. It’s a case of 1+1 = 1.5% – but that’s 50% more than Gilbert had before.

Where now for Standard workplace pensioners?

So where does this leave employers and policyholders with Standard Life “Good to Go” workplace pensions?

We’ve had a few statements from Phoenix, suggesting that there will be continuity of brand under some white-labelling arrangement. Corporate Adviser has been told

Standard Life, which had in recent years been the largest workplace pensions provider in the UK, will continue to market and distribute the workplace pensions, which will retain the Standard brand name, on a white-label basis, while the back office administration and ownership of the schemes will transfer to Phoenix.

But this doesn’t sound very core to Phoenix’s business model, which is essentially the management of closed books of business. Having spent some time working in a non-core area of British and American Financial Services , I do not envy those running “Good to go”, you will find the business cases you put forward for new investment , a lot more difficult.

Policyholders should be right to be worried. They are paying a premium price for a premium service. Finding that service owned by a “Zombie-insurer” will not go down well with many.

Governance – a fish out of water?

Much will depend on Phoenix’s attitude to governance. The Standard Life Governance Committee under Rene Poisson is now looking a fish out of water. I have consistently rated Phoenix’s IGC and hope that whatever merged IGC comes out of it, it combines the best of both. If the IGC is dumbed down, the proposition will surely follow.

Standard Life also own a number of master trusts, including one that is used for workplace pensions. It will be interesting to see what changes occur on the boards of these.

And finally, the teams at Standard Life will be reunited with the teams at Elevate, who manage a number of insured investment only propositions – including that of Lloyds Banking Group’s own staff pension scheme. There are considerable savings that might be made by using the Elevate platform at the investment platform of Good to Go and the Mastertrust

But are these cost savings to benefit the shareholders of Phoenix or the policyholders and members of the Standard Life workplace propositions? Strong Independent Governance will be needed to ensure that a balance of interests is maintained.

For more information…

New Model Adviser has produced a really effective slide show on the wider implications of the phoenicisation of Standard Life. Access it via this link

The end of Standard Life as we know it

Posted in pensions | Tagged David Hare, Good to Go, IGC, pension, Phoenix Life, Rene Poisson, Standard Life, workplace pension | Leave a comment

UUK – you cannot dictate the terms on which you break your promises.

Posted on February 24, 2018 by henry tapper

“Pension promises” are difficult. Lawyers tell me that the members of the University Superannuation Scheme (USS) do not have a contractual right to it. It could be argued that cutting off the oxygen of future accrual (as UUK are threatening to do) is the prerogative of the employer. This blog argues from a more common-sensical point of view.

If you are paid to be a lecturer, you consider your wages holistically – as total reward. Taking away your deferred pay (pension) is like taking away your actual pay. I dare say you can cut my salary, but you’d be well advised to get me to agree to the cut. So when I talk about broken promises – I’m talking about a failure to keep a promise – rather than a criminal act!

And of course , we’re all talking about what goes on in the future and not what has happened in the past. The past is another country and (thankfully) accruals to date cannot be put in jeopardy. Those accruals are rights not promises.

I have recently been interested in three instances where large employers have broken promises to staff about pensions.

Tata (and other former British Steel employers) broke a promise to fund the British Steel Pension Scheme. Steelworkers accepted the closure of the scheme as a way of keeping steel plants open. One way or another, the plants survive though the pension promise has been diminished. Most members of BSPS chose BSPS2 over the PPF – quite a few (who could) opted out of either.

Royal Mail, so over-protected its DB pension scheme that it found it could not afford to fund future accruals. Over a protracted period of negotiations, both sides came to the conclusion that it was in the best interests of all for Royal Mail to offer an upgraded DC solution in place of the broken DB pension – we know this solution as CDC or the “wage in retirement plan”. Royal Mail wasn’t broke (like Tata) but it’s pension scheme could have broken it.

The Universities (known collectively as “UUk”) are not broke, and it is highly debatable that their pension scheme will break them. The best explanation of why the promises made by Universities need not be broken is made here.

The Universities are a different case

Janet Beer

Despite my personal affection for my old teacher, I think Dame Janet Beer is wrong to have written the letter she did yesterday, trying to get the University’s Union – UCU, back to the negotiating table.

Re-reading the letter, I see a false assumption, an assumption that the UK Universities cannot afford to pay the DB promises they have made. The truth is that they can, but they want to do other things with the money they’d have to use to do so. It’s a case of discretionary spend.

Instead of assuming they are right, Janet Beer and others should be explaining to staff, as Royal Mail did, why it would be in everybody’s interest to accept the breaking of these pension promises. The Universities’ case is different because they are pressing on without the support of the unions or the members of their pension scheme (USS), Consequently they aren’t just facing, they’re experiencing strike action. The negotiations are not going well and UUk know it.

I will be in Cambridge this afternoon, watching a game of football. After, I’ll be spending time with students. All the indications I am getting is that Cambridge students are on the side of their teachers. They see things the way I see things – the Universities have not won the argument to close USS for future accrual (on any basis).

If and only if, UCU accept DB closure…

In its open letter to staff , UUK offer options for further discussion. These options do not get discussed until and unless an agreement is reached that the closure of the DB scheme is in the best interests of all – not just the employers.

While it is pleasing for me to hear that UUK acknowledge the existence of a CDC option (the one that was forged by Royal Mail and CWU), it is wrong of them to assume that they can use it to short-circuit the fundamental question about the breaking of the DB promise.

It’s heartening to hear that UUK still consider risk-sharing an option, this is- I think – code for a DB-lite solution , such as the WinRS scheme proposed by the CWU to Royal Mail (and rejected by the Royal Mail. This too could be discussed, if the case for breaking the DB promise was accepted.

Sally Hunt and the UCU are prepared to go back to the table

The UCU has said that it will go back to the negotiating table next week. They should go back to listen to the argument of UUK for why their members should accept broken promises. Some of that argument is rehearsed in Janet Beer’s letter, but simply saying you are right – does not make you right.

Sally Hunt is right on the money here

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘Because this is so serious for students and for staff we will of course attend.

“I am however very concerned that UUK has explicitly ruled out discussing the imposed changes that have caused the strikes.”

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) February 23, 2018

and again

UCU said unless the employers were prepared to talk about the January decision to slash pensions then it did not see how the dispute could be resolved.

In its statement UUK said “talks would not re-open the Joint Negotiating Committee decision made on 23 January”.

— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) February 23, 2018

No DC discussions without prior-agreement

But the UUK have not won their argument and cannot expect UCU to discuss any kind of DC solution (DC or CDC) – or indeed a dilution of the DB promise, unless both sides can accept a general way forward that justifies the breaking of the DB promise.

The people who fund the UUK are the tax-payers and the students (future tax payers and loan re-payers).

Janet Beer is on very weak ground as she has neither the support of the Unions, the students or the general tax-payer (well not me anyway!).

If the Universities want to pay their Vice Chancellors CEO wages, and build fine buildings and behave as if they were privately owned enterprises, then they will need to find a business model which the public buys into. They should stop behaving with ill discipline and poor governance.

They should come to the table next week with humility. They are asking UCU members to accept a broken promise and they need to do better at explaining the case to do that.

Part of that case, might be , that the alternative pension arrangement may not be so bad after all. But we can have no talk of CDC just yet. Professional Pensions claimed UUK were “jumping on the bandwagon”, there is of course no CDC bandwagon. CDC is no reason for UUK to break the DB promise.

The only bandwagon in town is the “let’s break our DB promise” bandwagon, which is sadly being driven around a large number of employers still accruing DB. CDC has nothing to do with this and any attempt by UUK to justify the breaking of the DB promise by offering CDC should be stoutly resisted. Resisted not just by UCU but by anyone who rationally calls themselves a “Friend of CDC”.

Posted in pensions, USS | Tagged CDC, pensions, Sally Hunt, UCU, USS, UUK | 1 Comment

Could this letter have opened the lecture- room door to a pension settlement?

Posted on February 23, 2018 by henry tapper

This letter needs to be read carefully. CDC is carefully positioned as one of a number of options available to improve benefits to staff. It would be in practice an upgrade to the existing DC scheme in place and not a downgrade of the DB promise. That said, members moving to the CDC plan would be accepting that this would be in place of future DB accrual.

Understandably, the UCU are reluctant to give up the rights to any DB accrual which they consider affordable immediately and in the long term.

However, the stated offer of a negotiation around an improved version of DC , may be as helpful to UCU as its offer by ACAS was to CWU. If the long term outcomes of a CDC scheme can match or exceed outcomes from an equivalently funded DB plan (as Con Keating and others of us in Friends of CDC believe it can), then future membership of a CDC plan need not necessarily be disadvantaged .

But there is a big “if” there. It will take a lot to get UCU and its members to exchange certainty of outcome for certainty of contribution. That said, this open letter is a great big step in the right direction and hats off to my old teacher Janet Beer!

The open letter to USS members in full:

22 February 2018

Dear members of the Universities Superannuation Scheme,

With the prospect of further industrial action in the coming weeks, we wanted to take the opportunity to let you know what the Universities UK position is in this dispute over pensions, and also the basis on which we are asking UCU to engage in further talks. We wanted to make it clear that we have never refused to continue to try to find an affordable, mutually acceptable solution.

The challenge for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

The problem that we share as interested parties in USS is that to continue to offer current benefits, contributions would have to rise by approximately £1 billion per annum. The scheme has a £6.1 billion deficit and there has been an increase of more than a third in the cost of future pensions. Pensions law requires this increased cost to be addressed, and the Pensions Regulator and USS trustee need to agree a credible plan to address the increased deficit by this summer.

When valuing a pension scheme there are many assumptions to be made by the trustee and it is understandable that differences of view may exist. The USS trustee, informed by independent expert advice, has been guided by the laws and regulations governing private pension schemes, which include stringent requirements on how much risk is tolerable. Despite a prudent assessment by the trustee, the independent Pensions Regulator raised concerns about the level of risk in USS in September 2017.

Employers have a legal duty to ensure the pension scheme is compliant with the requirements of the regulator. We also have a moral duty to the members of the scheme, and to the employers whose joint contributions ensure the financial sustainability of the scheme, to take action.

The problem faced by USS and universities is not unique. Many trustees and employers are making the same difficult decisions across UK-funded defined benefit schemes. Only the government could guarantee the level of financial backing for a defined benefit scheme to achieve a sufficiently manageable level of risk, and USS is not a government-backed scheme. The only options to address the funding challenges are to increase contributions to the scheme substantially or change the future benefit structure.

The consequences if employer contributions increase

Employers currently pay 18% of staff salaries to USS, double the average for defined contribution schemes in the UK. In Universities UK’s consultation with employers the majority were clear that an increase in the employer contribution is simply not feasible. If an increase in employer contributions were to be imposed, funding would have to be found from elsewhere in university budgets – from teaching and research, from staffing costs and from student services. It could lead to widespread redundancies, hurting both staff and students. And there would be no guarantee that the scheme would be in a more stable place at the next valuation, leading to further cost increases, more significant reductions in future pension benefits, and more cuts.

Potential for further talks

Universities UK, as the representative of employers, has been in talks with the University and College Union (UCU) throughout 2017, and we have met more than 35 times since the start of 2017 to try to find a way forward. The benefit changes that are proposed address the current issues with the scheme and also ensure that the maximum amount of the employers’ contribution goes towards members’ benefits. It is the best solution for this valuation to ensure the sustainability of the scheme.

We are open to changing the scheme again to reintroduce defined benefits if economic and funding conditions improve. To that end we have been and continue to ask for further talks with UCU on the future of the scheme including:

Exploring alternative models for risk sharing, which might provide higher certainty about retirement benefits to USS members. An example of an alternative scheme is collective defined contribution, which is currently not possible under UK legislation, although this may change in the future.

Exploring a well-defined framework for the future re-introduction of meaningful defined benefit if economic and funding conditions improve.

Exploring how deficit recovery contributions can be kept as low as possible, so that a greater proportion of employer and employee contributions supports future benefits.

Engaging with stakeholders on the way that any investment de-risking is to be implemented by the USS trustee, for example to ensure that any specific portfolio de-risking approaches deliver the most benefit for the associated expected reduction in target return.

From the end of March a two-month consultation will begin, when you, as a member of USS, will be asked for your views. We would like to appeal to you to take the opportunity to put forward any proposals you feel may not have been sufficiently considered. We have sought independent expert advice at each stage of this process, but we are open to the possibility that we have not considered every possible angle.

In the meantime, we wish to continue to discuss any credible, affordable proposal; and even at this late stage, we are confident that employers would want to consider whether such a proposal could form the basis of a way forward.

If you would like to read the detailed briefing material that sets out our views and analysis in more detail, please visit the Universities UK website.
Best wishes,

Professor Dame Janet Beer, President, Universities UK

Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive, Universities UK

Posted in pensions | Tagged Alastair Jarvis, CDC, Dame Janet Beer, pensions, strike, UCU, USS | Leave a comment

Royal Mail CDC – proof of concept or the real deal?

Posted on February 23, 2018 by henry tapper

poc

I am always amazed at the churlishness of the pension industry towards innovation. Here’s John Lawson suggesting that the Royal Mail should be spending £400m a year to satisfy his curiosity.

I’d quite like one or two schemes to try it, so that we can all observe what happens in real life rather than in mathematical theory

— John Lawson (@pensionslawson) February 19, 2018

Let’s be clear, you do not spend £400m a year on anything unless you are totally convinced it is the right thing to do (unless you are an insurance company “re-platforming”).

In answering the question I posed in the title, I have first to question what the insurance company means by “real life” and “mathematical theory”.

Real life

We all live in bubbles to a greater or lesser degree. But if your job is delivering letters to people at 7am in the morning in February (when I’m writing), life must seem super real. It’s cold, it’s tough and one of the things that keeps you going is that you will be getting enough money at the end of your working career , to stop pushing a cart around, or sorting or driving a van.

The Royal Mail pension scheme is a deadly serious enterprise.

“Real life” is not hypothecating on twitter.

Mathematical theory

All insurance and pension projections are based on mathematical theory. How those projections match up to outcomes is a matter of speculation whether we are talking about Royal Mail’s ability to meet the targets for their pensions or Aviva’s Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations.

Here is the mathematical theory behind the Royal Mail’s wage for life pension scheme, which will commence as soon as Government can help organise it.

I hear a lot of grumbling about pension contributions not being big enough. The Royal mail will be paying 13.6% of postal worker’s pay into this Wage in Retirement CDC scheme and postal workers will be paying a further 6%.

The £400m that Royal Mail will be spending is real life money not mathematical theory.

A disintermediated pension

It is up to the people who manage Royal Mail pensions to ensure that as much of the £400m as possible ends up in the hands of the real life postal workers for whom it is intended. So beware insurers, pension consultants, third party administrators, lawyers, accountants and actuaries – there is a chance that the management costs of this DC upgrade could be radically lower than any pension scheme ever run in this country.

That is so long as we don’t see the Wage for Life arrangement having to shell out on worthless intermediation.

So long as the Wage for Life scheme is as simple as the scheme design above, the chances are that it will run at a fraction of the cost of any workplace pension and deliver much better outcomes.

Of course the outcomes aren’t just a matter of keeping the costs down, they will – as all DC schemes will – depend on market conditions and of course on the skill of the investment managers. The Trustees of the new Royal Mail Wage for Life scheme, will have plenty of opportunity to search out the best in investment management.

Turning round the fortunes of Royal Mail

Royal Mail is poised to return to the FTSE 100, after adding £2bn to its market capitalisation in the last four months. Shareholders have been rewarded by more than a 50% increase in the value of their stock.

Royal Mail was booted out of the FTSE 100 last year as the share price plummeted on fears of a pension strike. That strike was averted by good work from Royal Mail and CWU and investors have flocked back.

In the real world, shareholders, management and staff stand to gain a great deal from sorting out pensions.

More than a proof of concept of a mathematical theory

You only get one shot at this. The “Wage for Retirement solution pioneered by Royal Mail has the chance to radically reshape the three principal DC markets in the UK

Large single employers DC plans
Multi-employer workplace DC plans
Non workplace retirement savings plans.

Note the deliberate avoidance of the word “pension” in any of the three. Insurers like Aviva have the privilege of managing many of the plans in all three sectors but – along with other providers, do not offer a wage for life integrated into any of these plans.

In the real life of postal workers, the loss of such pensions from the closure of the Royal Mail DB plan, has meant that around 100,000 of the 142,000 postal workers have lost the right to a wage for life. The proposals give them back that right.

John Lawson, and others who point to the upcoming Royal Mail wage for life scheme had better get the message. This pension plan is very real and poses an existential threat to their meagre ambition for the rest of us.

Posted in CDC, pensions | Tagged Aviva, CDC, John Lawson, pension, pensions, Plan, Royal Mail | Leave a comment

A good day for pensions, a good day for the DC upgrade.

Posted on February 22, 2018 by henry tapper

We will know we have a solution when we don’t need guns.

Overnight I heard the President of the United States deliver his solution to the gun crisis in American schools. To prevent more mass shootings, Donald Trump suggested that American teachers carried (and were trained to use) a gun.

I am sure I am in the majority of British people when I call this an appalling solution that demonstrates a societal breakdown in America. We in Britain aspire to a society where no-one needs to carry a gun, where arguments are settled by words and where we de-escalate violence. Extending the problems of the street into the classroom, simply desensitises beautiful young people.

Guns are not the solution, we will know we have the solution when we don’t need guns.

What planet are these guys on?

In making the following statement, I risk alienating some people who might say I should not be making capital out of the heart breaking loss that parents and friends of those who died in that Florida school.

I think that Trump’s remark was born out of a fundamentally mistaken position , just as I think this statement is made out of a fundamentally mistaken position.

For what it’s worth, I really think there are more pressing issues than a jolly over CDC right now. Am all for creative thinking and debate, just not sure why this is currently on the Work and Pensions Committee’s plate.

— Alex Warnakulasuriya (@alexwarna_pe) February 21, 2018

This is in fact excellent journalism, Alex is articulating the very thing that most of his readers (the Pension Experts) will be thinking. Most people regard “CDC” as an unnecessary complication which would best be left in the alphabet soup.

Alex has now published an article in Pensions Expert, which quotes at length the views of Simon Harrington, senior public policy adviser at the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association.

Unlike Hargreaves Lansdown’s Nathan Long, who made some excellent points about people for whom CDC would not be suitable (most of HL’s clients), Harrington was not at the hearing. This is very clear as the meeting articulated a clear vision of CDC as a CD upgrade – initially for the Royal Mail but in time for others. Here he is moaning to Alex as if we were back in 2015.

There is an absence of clarity about what CDC is as legislated for, for the UK, and how it compares with other international examples, and then specifically what the benefits of CDC are as compared with the current system that we have”

I’m pleased that Alex is articulating the “industry position”. It allows me to take a step back, as I did with Trump’s remark and ask “what planet are these guys on?”.

CDC needs international comparators like teachers need guns.

Misreading the mood of the country

My reply to Alex, wasn’t considered but looking at it now, I think it properly explains why most people, including Alex are misreading the situation.

142,000 postal workers chose CDC over a Christmas strike? A number of large DC occ schemes are looking to upgrade DC to CDC and we have over £300bn non-advised DC assets in “pensions that don’t give a pension”? Isnt that worth something?

— Pension Plowman (@henryhtapper) February 21, 2018

But just as Trump’s comments were logical in the context of a belief that everyone should be allowed to carry a gun, so Alex’s comments are logical in the context of the pension freedoms. It is only one step from saying “no one should ever have to buy an annuity again” to saying “no one should ever have a pension again”.

What was happening to the Royal Mail postal workers, was that they were being offered a pot not a pension. The same thing is happening to teachers. Teachers are striking today for the right to continue to accrue pensions within the USS. As the FT’s excellent opinion piece today puts it.

The changes the UUK is proposing are similar to those that have been carried out by businesses across the UK. These would see the scrapping of defined-benefit pensions which offer certainty of income in retirement. In their place UUK would introduce defined-contribution pensions

Except the “striking dons” won’t get pensions, they will just get pots of money.

Just as Trump is blind-sided by his fundamental belief in American gun laws, so we are blindsided to the obvious fact that people so don’t want pots and so do want pensions, that they are prepared to go on strike about it.

We will know we have a solution when we don’t need “pension experts” to manage our pots!

No news is not fake news.

What was so wondrous about yesterday’s meeting of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, was that it was so un-newsworthy. No reporters sat with me in the gallery, not even Alex (though he had tweeted he would be!). There is nothing so unreportable as consensus.

With Trumpian recklessness , Alex called the proceedings a “jolly”. They were anything but.

Jon Milledge of Royal Mail and Ray Ellis of CWU spoke movingly about how they had found an agreement which met the needs of the 142,000 postal workers. Frank Field and a team of cross-party MPs, wished them well in “selling” their solution to the DWP. Field described the consensus between unions and employers over pensions as “huge”. We are witnessing something huge, and everyone in the room knew it.

I will put this to anyone reading this piece

Can there be anything more pressing than finding a way of paying people what we have promised them ( a pension) from their defined contribution pots?
Can we really suppose that the rag tail and bobtail of advisory solutions proposed by the Retirement Outcomes review represents a lasting solution to the hardest, nastiest problem in finance?
Can any reader point me to an equivalent “good news story” to the Royal Mail pension settlement?

Yesterday, FTadviser reported the DWP as saying

“We are engaging with Royal Mail to better understand their pension proposals. However any changes to legislation would be in the interests of savers and the wider pensions industry.”

To my mind, that is one of the best statements I could read. If the Royal Mail can provide a wage for life for the postal workers, then the DWP can help millions of us, trapped in the current bind of annuities and drawdown, a default pension solution for our pots.

Myopia can be cured

I was prompted to write this blog by the blindness of Donald Trump to the implications of his solution. I realised that I had a similar feeling about Alex’s blindness to the importance of the Royal Mail solution. Both are cases of myopia resulting from fundamental misunderstandings.

Fortunately, children are marching on Washington to put the case for less rather than more guns in schools. And (on a much less violent matter) , we are marching on with our polite but determined request to have a wage for life from our DC savings.

Alex, you should have been in the room, if you had been – you’d have seen it was no jolly. There is an earnest endeavour among all working towards this DC upgrade.

Striking for pensions – not pots

Posted in CDC, pensions | Tagged CDC, DC upgrade, Frank Field, pensions, risk sharing, Royal Mail, Work and Pensions Select | 2 Comments

Why are university staff going on strike?

Posted on February 19, 2018 by henry tapper

Stuart Croft – VC Warwick

My son has started sending me the announcements he’s been getting from his University about impending strike. He’s at one of two Universities who have been leading the charge amongst employers calling for an end to DB accrual in the Universities Superannuation Scheme(USS). I’ve had to explain that the reason his teachers won’t be teaching him (something he’s paying for) is because of this dispute.

This morning, the Prime Minister will announce a review of the way that students meet the cost of their education, she’ll be doing at a time when students will be accruing expensive debt and getting very little for it. The timing isn’t great.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog called “Postmen want to strike – is it any wonder“. I made it clear that I supported the Postmen who wanted a “wage in retirement” and were rejecting offers of a cash sum at retirement. Not all postmen voted for a strike but 89% did – showing that pension freedoms (for them) came second to the keeping of a decades old promise.

I wish I could be as certain of my support for the members of the University Superannuation Scheme. If the Royal Mail and CWU had not reached a pension settlement, I would be. In some ways the financial case for keeping USS open for future accrual is stronger than Royal Mail’s. The Universities (UUK) present a strong covenant (whatever rubbish tPR has said about universities failing). The Universities can afford the future cash-flow and balance sheet implications (especially if they kept to a growth strategy on their investments).

But it now seems that (led by Oxford and Cambridge) the Universities themselves have dug in their heels.

For all this, I cannot write “lecturers want to strike, who can blame them” and this blog from the Vice-Chancellor of Warwick University is why.

I have no answer to the question “why are university staff going on strike?”

We are now only days away from a period of industrial unrest which I strongly believe could have been avoided and, with goodwill on all sides, could still be avoided.

I have been very public with my criticism of the pension valuation and the subsequent decision by UUK to advocate what is in effect closure of the defined benefit element of the USS scheme.

I do not believe that either party to the USS negotiation have exploited the full range of options which could have generated a meaningful pension for University staff without jeopardising the financial future of the sector.

I am therefore calling for an early return to negotiations, with a more open and imaginative approach from both parties. A return to active negotiations with a real willingness by all sides to explore every option would of course enable deferral of industrial action until those avenues have been fully explored.

In short, I question the need for the change in the valuation assumptions last autumn which gave rise to the scale of this challenge. Second, I would ask that consideration is given to options which would protect the less well paid in the sector and future entrants, perhaps by restricting DB to those in the national pay framework and placing the higher paid into a DC only scheme.

Thirdly, I believe it that instead of focusing on removing everyone’s choice on DB USS should look to give individuals the choice to opt out of DB where their circumstances make this less attractive e.g. some overseas staff.

Finally, I would suggest it is time for government to take as close an interest in pension provision as it does in other aspects of reward in this sector. This could be through legislation which enables risk sharing DC schemes or by underwriting pensions for everyone currently in USS in a way that is more reflective of government support for unfunded public sector schemes such as TPS.

I recognise that there is a deadline being demanded by regulators. But it is vital that we find a way of resolving an issue which will be costly, both financially and in terms of reputation, for Universities, the sector and – most importantly – its students and staff.

Posted in pensions, Royal Mail, USS | Tagged pensions, Royal Mail, Stuart Croft, UCU, USS, UUK, Warwick | 5 Comments

HMRC and FCA complicit in the democratisation of villainy.

Posted on February 18, 2018 by henry tapper

If the FCA want to get to grips with the problem of contingent (conditional) charging, they had better have a look at the taxation of advice and make changes in the Finance Act 2018 to the way we tax advice.

First the facts, as verified by those financial advisers practicing in the transfer market.

Case one

Someone consults an IFA on whether to transfer. IFA says that independent of the size of transfer, a fee of £2500 +VAT will be payable for the research, advice and recommendation on what to do.

Case two

That someone consults an IFA, who says he will do the same research, analysis and transfer and will only charge for it, if a transfer is made. The same fee is payable but this time there is no VAT to pay and the fee can be paid out of the transferred monies.

In case one, the actual amount that will have to be paid is £3000 (VAT adding £500) and the amount that will need to be earned (the client pays a marginal rate of tax of 40%) is £5000.

Put simply, it costs this person twice as much to pay a non-contingent charge and the difference (£2,500 v £5,000) is entirely down to the HMRC subsidising conditional charging.

“Intermediation good – advice – not so good”

I asked top IFA, Dennis Hall why contingent charging gets the tax-breaks while the adviser who charges for advice alone, lands his client with a whopping tax-bill

intermediation (advice leading to product) is zero rated – advice alone isn’t – so as you intimated, advice that says ‘not a good idea to transfer’ costs 20% more than advice to transfer.

— Dennis Hall (@YellowtailFP) February 17, 2018

Actually , it costs twice as much as Dennis and I , hadn’t considered the income tax situation.

Just what “intermediation” has got going for it is unclear. But the impact of this taxation anomaly becomes even greater , if you consider that an adviser who charges conditionally, can also levy the cost of implementing the advice in a tax advantaged way.As David Penney puts it in his tweet.

Non contingent fee of £2,500 plus VAT. Recommendation to transfer. Further £2,500 payable. The whole £5,000 becomes exempt. £2,500 advice fee would be VATable if transfer not recommended.

— David Penney (@DavidPenney10) February 17, 2018

Treading on thin ice

There is a problem here; even if HMRC were to separate out the recommendation to transfer fee from the implementation fee and stop the lumping of the two together as an implementation fee (non vat-able and payable from a tax privileged fund), the smart IFA would simply knock his transfer fee down to £1 and load the cost of the implementation.

Paul Lewis had a laugh at me when I tried to sum up the problem in 140 characters.

‘VAT issues are endemic to vertically integrated propositions’ is a phrase you don’t hear very often!!

— Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) February 17, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

But I forgive him as he put his finger on the nub of the problem

Henry is right. Scrap contingent fees and you take out the charlatans as it’s not worth their while. If some folk can’t afford to pay for advice then they will not transfer which is almost always the right advice anyway. https://t.co/bcocXPHDYW

— Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) February 17, 2018

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Such a brutal analysis misses the subtlety of my pompous little phrase but gets to the heart of the matter. Right now it is massively expensive to pay a non-contingent fee, so expensive that only those with deep pockets can do so.

If HMRC’s (and by extension) the FCA, wants to make transfers special, they can ban conditional charging and continue to levy tax and VAT on the non-contingent fees. That would make transfers a rich-man’s game, (it wouldn’t however put an end to the endemic issues with VAT and vertical integration).

Putting an end to Contingent Charging would reduce transfer activity.

The conversation on contingent charging that started when Martin Bamford appeared on Moneybox and ended when we all went to bed. It involved about 20 advisers, Paul Lewis and me. There was one tweet from Martin Dodd which should be picked up on by the FCA and any financial journalist worth his/her salt.

We unilaterally introduced a contingent charging ban in our practice. Guess what, the numbers of people prepared to proceed to advice fell through the floor. Perhaps not a bad thing after all.

— Martin Dodd CFP (@martin_dodd) February 17, 2018

This is the grist of the matter.

By allowing contingent charging to be deemed “intermediation” , the FCA and Treasury are putting the cost of transfer advice within the range of everyone. Advisers love it, they are simply taxing people’s futures with minimal pain today. As the perceived benefit of the pot over the pension is so enormous, no one is asking any questions.

But as we discovered in yesterday’s blog, the FCA knows that 53% of the advice given to those transferring is questionable, so it really ought to be doing something about the frictionless process created by their own tax rules (the FCA and HMRC both come within the compass of one Government department – HM Treasury).

“Intermediation” is the democratisation of villainy

The FCA’s wider problem with vertical integration (as articulated in the asset management market study) is also made worse by “intermediation” as it makes the non- charging of VAT , a benefit of any advice linked to the product being recommended. wealth product

Wealth managers, as the picture to the right suggests, now consider themselves “manufacturers” and can integrate their advice into the product, exploiting the same “intermediation” loophole as those affecting transfers.

Indeed the majority of firms holding themselves out to be transfer specialists – are wealth managers at the same time.

But of course they are more than wealth managers, they are altruists, for they are – through contingent charging – offering the most cash-strapped access to their pension pot!

I have (again) pompously referred to this as the democratisation of villainy.

Why this stinks!

The current use of tax-privileged pension pots to pay for everything is ripping off the tax-payer and making IFAs rich. It is enabling transfers that are questionable or downright wrong and it is storing up problems for tomorrow.

But tax-privileged intermediation underpins the entire shooting match of vertically integrated financial services, extending way beyond transfers and wealth management into institutional fiduciary management.

Where you stop is anybody’s guess; but stop it must. We need to stop proliferation of VAT and tax abuse so that reputable advisers like Martin Dodd and reputable clients, who play by the rules, are not further disadvantaged.

I will shut up now, aware that I have opened a particularly smelly can of worms which most of my readers will recoil from, because they are in part complicit to these bad practices.

Posted in accountants, advice gap, dc pensions, pensions | Tagged advice, democatisation, FCA, HM Treasury, HMRC, IFA, pensions, transfers, villainy | 15 Comments

Workplace pensions – who gives a flying feck what’s going on?

Posted on February 17, 2018 by henry tapper

Share Action is watching.

Data or opinion? What’s the best measure of value?

Most investors when looking for evidence and would prefer to trust data.

Opinion is now measured by “the crowd”, the wisdom of a great number of people is turned into data. The opinions of experts counts for something but successful enterprises are driven by bigger data.

It worries me that there remains in my world of pensions, an oligarchy of experts who’s opinion counts for more than big data. I refer to the “usual suspects who’s names occur on the majority of IGC committees, master trust boards and the governors of our pension institutions.

The saddest statement from the chair of an IGC or Trustee board is “in my opinion , we offer value for money”. I expect to hear this statement repeated again in again throughout the upcoming IGC reporting season.

The opinion of those who govern our pensions is only as good as the data that it’s based on

Share Action has produced a review of the 2017 annual reports produced by the independent governance committees (IGCs) for contract-based pension schemes (which they began last year after the FCA said it was indefinitely delaying its own review). They’ve focused on the transparency of the IGCs’ reports, to see if an external observer could understand what value scheme members are getting from the different providers.

While they’ve seen emerging good practice in the reports, they found that many of them were too vague and unsubstantiated to allow an external observer to understand the value being offered by providers. For example, more than a third did not state what members were being charged and nearly half gave no data on investment performance. To me, this doesn’t meet the FCA’s policy intent, which was to increase transparency and encourage comparison between IGCs.

Clear and comparable reporting is needed from IGCs to demonstrate transparency and build accountability. It is important for IGCs to assure scheme members that this is not just another case of industry assessing industry, and that this governance gap is truly being filled.

Who watches the watchers?

The Share Action Report produces a ranking table of IGC reports that correlates pretty well with the rankings I produce in April (see bottom of article)

ranking

Some of the low scores are easily explained

What Share Action (and I) are asking for.

Share Action have made some recommendations for the IGCs on how they can report more effectively. They have also recommended that the FCA should set a specific definition of value for money and issue clear, comprehensive guidance on how to assess it. The widely varied standards of assessment and reporting demonstrated by IGCs indicate that a more standardised approach is required.

In case anyone thinks that master trusts and single occupational schemes hold out a gold standard, let’s be clear – they do not. If anything they are less accountable, they do not report in one go and the majority of their reports are only available to members. Fortunately , the Pensions Regulator does monitor what is going on and this week issues fines to a number of miscreant trustees whose reports were considered inadequate.

You can read what the Pensions Regulator is doing to enforce better standards of reporting here. I look forward to the DWP’s conclusions following its work on value for money disclosures which is due out later this year.

But more can and should be done by the pensions industry to independently monitor value for money and provide ordinary people with help about their pensions.

To this end, the IDWG are producing definitive templates which collectively can capture the data we need to understand what we are paying for funds.

To this end, a disparate group is working to collate further published data on the costs for members of participating in occupational pensions (including master trusts) and group personal pensions.

To this end I hope can generally working to create definitive performance data that can compare one form of workplace pension with another by way of absolute and risk adjusted performing.

And from these data sets, I hope IGCs will be able to provide value for money ratings that can be used to rank all workplace pensions against each other in league table. Those offering most value at the top, and those offering least , at the bottom.

Addendum

My ratings of the IGC reports in the past two reporting rounds. Note these are based on my personal opinion and not data! I will be looking to incorporate the Share Action transparency ratings as well as other ratings (for instance the Pension Bee Robin Hood Index) into my assessment of engagement, effectiveness and transparency (in VFM) in 2018

IGC2017 framed

Posted in Henry Tapper blog, IGC, pensions | Tagged charges, Data, governance, IGCs, pensions, Trustee boards, Value for Money, workplace Pensions | 1 Comment

Time for a DC upgrade?

Posted on February 16, 2018 by henry tapper

upgrade underway

I was wading through yet another long and technical explanation of CDC when I got my Eureka moment!

I don’t want a CDC plan, I want a DC upgrade!

I’m not dissing legal eagle Sandeep Maudgil (who’s soon to appear before the Work and Pensions Select Committee to opine on what CDC is). Sandeep works for Slaughter and May (who can charge more in an hour than most of us work in a week). Sandeep is a brilliant lawyer who can explain CDC in the context of the Netherlands, Canada and UK DB legislation. The trouble is, the only people reading his article are people like me and the other friends of CDC!

CDC has become a playground for academic and legal experts intent on displaying their technical proficiency. For years it has been discussed by actuaries as a way of de-risking Defined Benefits.

Sandeep’s article (ironically in that most pragmatic of papers – FT Financial Adviser) is summed up in three “key points”

CDC schemes might be an alternative to defined benefit schemes
In a CDC scheme, the actuary is asked what rate of pensions members can reasonably expect to receive
CDC schemes are widely used in the Netherlands, Denmark and certain parts of Canada.

Boring!

We are told

“the impetus behind collective defined contribution is the idea that the UKs’s current legal framework for occupational pensions is too binary”

Boring!

The article has its moments, where I can get excited but again and again it shows it is being written from the perspective of someone immersed in defined benefit culture. It sees CDC’s challenge as

getting people in the UK accustomed to a new form of pension arrangement where pension amounts are only targets rather than being guaranteed entitlements, and where pensions might reduce once in payment.

Boring!

Most people in the UK do not have an occupational pension that gives them these guaranteed entitlements. Most people have a combination of workplace and non-workplace DC pensions that guarantee them nothing but the freedom to go and buy a financial product like a drawdown plan or an annuity!

I’ll say it again – I want a DC upgrade!

It’s time that ordinary people wrested control of the CDC arguments from the actuaries and lawyers and academics and applied them to their own personal circumstances.

I want a DC plan that pays me a wage for life. I don’t care about binary occupational plan options, I don’t mind that CDC pensions aren’t guaranteed, I just want a simple way of converting my DC pot to a DC pension.

I don’t want this kind of rubbish “non workplace pension”!

value chain

I don’t want a workplace pension that isn’t a pension at all!

Every night I have to watch the DWP tell me on the TV to “get to know my workplace pension” and every night I ask – “what workplace pension?”. My workplace pension pays me a pot not a pension.

I don’t want a workplace savings pot – I want a workplace pension !

what pension is that then?

I’ll say it again – I want a DC upgrade!

I want freedom to do what I want with my pension , but I don’t want the freedom of a “pot”! I want in retirement , what I had in work, the payment of regular amounts into my bank account so I can budget with a degree of certainty. I want a wage for life.

What Dutch actuaries, or Canadian lawyers or Danish and German regulators are getting up to , is of absolutely no interest to me. I don’t want to know thanks very much.

I want a DC upgrade so that I know that when I come to draw my pension , there’s a pension there to draw – and I don’t want ever to have to buy an annuity!

I’ll say it again – I want a DC upgrade!

So when I read that 142,000 postal workers are going to have a CDC plan, I try to work out what that means and how I can explain CDC to a postal worker (more specifically my postman).

It’s so simple – it’s a workplace pension that instead of paying out as a pot – pays out as a wage for life. It’s an upgraded workplace pension suitable for people who aren’t pension experts.

Does it stop people who want to be pension experts transferring their money into a SIPP? NO
Does it stop people who want to give their pot to a financial adviser to manage? NO
Does it stop people like JR who want certainty exchanging the CDC pension for a guaranteed annuity? NO

What the Royal Mail and the CWU have agreed upon, is a solution to 142,000 workers joint problem, they did not want a pot but a pension.

The Royal Mail could not afford to guarantee the pension, but they could afford a generous contribution into the pension plan so that the potential pensions look good.

The members were prepared to take their chances on the markets and have accepted the defined contribution and are prepared to collectively underwrite the risks of the “hardest nastiest problem in finance”.

Somewhere in the background are actuaries, lawyers , regulators and the odd academic, making this happen. But this is not, and should not be about those clever folk, it should be about people like you and me and our money!

CDC is a DC upgrade and the best thing to happen to workplace pensions since auto-enrolment! I commend it to the House!

I want a DC upgrade please!

Posted in annuity, CDC, pensions | Tagged CDC, pension, pension upgrade, Royal Mail, SIPP, upgrade, workplace pension | 3 Comments

Bamboozled by vultures! – The Work and Pensions report on Port Talbot

Posted on February 15, 2018 by henry tapper

time to choose

Though it reveals little new, Frank Field’s report into what happened in the British Steel Pension Scheme is nothing if not a good read.

But we shouldn’t allow headlines about sausage ‘n’ chips suppers and factory-gate skulduggery to get in the way of the report’s conclusions and recommendations.

This was a serious inquiry that has thrown up some important messages.

Even as good a pension as the British Steel needs a sponsor; without the support of TATA, this scheme’s natural home was the PPF which is where it went.
Giving people a choice of lifeboats was for a substantial minority of steelworkers for themselves, they’d have swum for themselves – pretty well no matter what.
The job of protecting such people from the worst consequences of an emotional and irrational decision was simply not done; either by the Trustees or advisers.
This was out of a misjudgement by the Trustees and out of opportunism amongst a small band of entrepreneurial advisers (who I bet now wished they hadn’t got involved).

My part in all this is rather over-represented in the report, as I have the gift of the gab and am quotable. But I am pleased that I and Al Rush and Rich, Stefan and David, were able to highlight the systemic problems with transfer advice in the UK today

That where demand is strong (there were over 15,000 CETV quotations in circulation out of a transferrable population of 43,000) , then advice tends to be commoditised. Stories of advisers doing 7 transfers in a day abound.
That the new kind of SIPP (see diagram below) has allowed some advisers to subvert the RDR and get paid via the back door. There is nothing illegal about these SIPP structures, but they do the same financial vandalism as scams.
That where demand is so strong, a feeding frenzy will emerge and that Port Talbot was entirely predictable (indeed I predicted it in August to a group of BSPS Trustees and their advisers).

Having been an IFA in the 1980s and 1990s, I totally understand both the good and bad advisers I have been in contact with. The Pension Freedoms are a side issue in this. What created the feeding frenzy ,was not the capacity to spend the money when they liked (only 4% of members in an early poll wanted to control their money themselves), it was the telephone numbers , the financial and emotional response to Tata’s covenant and the failure on everybody’s part to explain why transfer values are so high.

poll bsps anon

One person I spoke to explained that they thought the transfer value for their £30,000 pa prospective pension would be £30,000. It turned out to be over £700,000. Can you blame that person being amazed?

What added fuel to the fire was a perception that TATA and the Trustees were acting in unison to prevent transfers. While Time To Choose talked of BSPS2 and PPF, the steelworkers talked of lifeboat v transfer. The Trustees and their members weren’t having the same conversation.

I’m now finding myself talking to the Trustees and managers of other large pension schemes and it turns out (surprise surprise) that they have their own Port Talbots. Indeed some of the advisory firms “volunteering” not to advise steelworkers are also causing “de-authorisation issues” for other schemes.

Port Talbot has changed the landscape;

9 firms have removed themselves from the transfer market
1 firm (Active Wealth) has gone into liquidation
The FCA’s sampling suggests that in 53% of cases where transfer advice given the advice was either iffy or downright dodgy
As a result, all transfer advisers can expect the “inspector to call” in 2018
and the Pensions Regulator and FCA have agreed to establish a joint pensions strategy.

I hope that we will see in 2018, a diminishment- if not the end- of conditional pricing, the practice of only charging a client if they don’t go ahead with the transfer recommendation

I hope we will see an investigation into advised SIPPs as part of the platform review

I hope that the FCA will weed out the IFAs who have the qualifications but not the integrity, needed to help people in this most difficult area of financial advice

And I think that those, like me who advise trustees, will recognise we hold a part of the blame. We are supposed to be able to look at the future and predict things with help of data from the past. I could tell, as a former adviser, where things were heading , but it looks like the better qualified advisers talking with the trustees – couldn’t. They shouldn’t be able to walk away from the consequences of Port Talbot (even if they don’t know where Port Talbot is).

taibach al

If you want to hear me spout some of this on Radio 4’s today program, the link’s here (minute 1.17)

Posted in BSPS, pensions | Tagged BSPS, Port Talbot, Scam | 3 Comments

Are you feeling DC sick?

Posted on February 14, 2018 by henry tapper

We’ve all been there!

Joy for DB is pain for DC!

DB looking good (according to PPF)

FTSE 100 – one month – feeling a little DC sick?

I am sure I am painting too simple a picture and that I’ll be whacked over the head by my learned colleagues, but the general jubilation breaking out over UK pension scheme solvency levels, is coming at a time when the average DC investor is suffering a “market correction” wiping as much as 10% off their market savings.

I believe this is called a barbell, what is good for Peter is bad for Paul and vice versa.

It’s a bit like Boris Johnson wanting everyone to enjoy Brexit, even if for the remoaners , it’s a pain in the bum. I don’t need people whooping it up in the land of the perpetual gilt (on the road to buy out) , when I’m trying to get on with business as usual!

Business as usual for me is the incredibly boring world of FABI, where funding levels do not jump up and down because Mark Carney breaks wind over monetary or fiscal policy. FABI is based on real world economics, what people make and how companies prosper, rather than the seemingly arbitrary decision of the Bank of England or the Fed.

As a DC investor, I am into patient capital, I am 56, I don’t want to start drawing down till my appetite for earning diminishes (and it’s showing no sign of diminishing). Consequently, what happens to interest rates is of no consequence to my pension. I’m looked after by my former employer (thanks very much Zurich Financial Services) – I’m very happy for them if they are a bit more solvent but I was even more happy when they carried me through periods of insolvency.

So I’m alright Jack – but what about the rest of us!

I do appreciate David Robbins tweet .

Higher yields produce lowest aggregate s179 deficit in nearly four years. But headline £51bn shortfall = £174bn of deficits minus £123bn of surpluses. £174bn arguably more relevant for potential PPF claims. https://t.co/5Ng59YgWC4

— David Robbins (@David_J_Robbins) February 13, 2018

If David is worried about the impact of those schemes in deficit going into the PPF, then he should remember that those in DC have just taken a PPF style haircut (10% off) in one month!

And if he’s worried about the financial resilience of the PPF, he should remind himself (I’m sure he does) that the biggest winner from the recent uptick in gilt yields, will be the PPF itself, which is inexorably heading for self-sufficiency at a heady rate.

As we in the Friends of CDC maintain, the PPF looks like a very ugly CDC scheme right now, ugly in that it is full of ugly assets , but friendly as it is going to pay out pensions to millions of people in the most efficient of ways.

DB has a strong chin!

The DB world, and especially the PPF, can look at that £123bn shortfall with the calm eye of a champion boxer;

“give me your best shot”,

knowing it’s got fitness, a strong chin and resilience!

Because of strong DB schemes (like the one I’m in – praise be!) and because of the PPF, we have a lot of people in this country who have certainty of a supplement to their state pension. They are the lucky people with a DB promise. I am one and I thank goodness I am.

But DC does not know how to cover up!

As said before , I’m not worried that I’ve lost 10% of the paper value of my DC in a week, there are ten years plus of work in me yet!

But there are many I know, including those I’ve met through working with BSPS members, who do not have any way to cover up. If you are in an equity based DC scheme, especially in drawdown, you are hurting. If you are about to drawdown for whatever reason and are in equities, you are in an uncovered position right now.

I am sure most people reading this blog, are able to live with that, but it’s the people who don’t spend time reading pension blogs (eg 99.99% of the population) who I am worried about.

We need to think about them – just as the CWU have been thinking about the 142,000 postal workers. For while the Royal Mail DB scheme , is safely tied up in the harbour (close to 100% gilt funded – immunised from stormy weather), those in DC are taking a right pummelling from the financial storms.

Former DB members of Royal Mail are being offered a CDC alternative, one that pays a wage for life , not a “pension pot”. They can rightly look forward to a pension – albeit a pension that is to a degree – market related.

Those who have and are transferring out of DB schemes have no such prospect (yet). those who are being shoved into DC schemes (as those in USS and BT are about to be) have no such comfort.

Feeling DC sick?

So while I am happy that DB is looking more secure, while I am comfortable that the PPF is heading for self-sufficiency, I am not happy or comfortable for most people in DC. Most people in DC are feeling DC sick right now, having been tossed around by the market for the past couple of weeks.

If you are DC sick and want some relief – come and join the Friends of CDC!

target pensions

Posted in CDC, pensions | Tagged CDC, DB, dc, FABI, Friends of CDC, pensions, ppf | 3 Comments

Aegon stung into action by the Bee!

Posted on February 11, 2018 by henry tapper

The repression of nearly 900 Aegon customer’s is coming to an end

Let your people go!

It looks like Aegon has backed down and agreed to treat its customers wishing to transfer to PensionBee, fairly.

This report, based on what appears to be a press release from Aegon, suggests that Aegon will release the 874 policyholders who they’ve trapped in their departure lounge for up to 214 days.

By any standard , Aegon’s behaviour has been reckless.

- Those stuck in the lounge have been forced to pay high charges for funds they no-longer want to be in. Financial loss will be quantifiable, Aegon are running severe risks of litigation – especially if a class-action is invoked from those who can prove loss.
- Nearly 41,000 people have watched PensionBee’s customer video explaining to potential customers how to leave Aegon. The video has been well-liked , even by Aegon’s senior management in the Netherlands

Aegon’s UK management have messed with Aegon’s corporate brand, holding it up to ridicule on pages such as mine and in the financial press. They risk much wider coverage , should a national get hold of the story.
Aegon’s behaviour should be of interest to the FCA; they have not treated customers fairly and at a time when we are trying to get better pension engagement with ordinary people, Aegon have contravened just about every unwritten and written rule in the book
Aegon have shown up the timidity and lack of independence of their IGC which has done nothing to bring it to heel.
Finally Aegon has shown itself thoroughly incompetent in its conduct of due diligence. If it cannot see a good’un like PensionBee, how could it spot a bad’un.

During the course of the 8 months that it has turned off the tap to PensionBee transfers, PensionBee has received a substantial equity injection from State Street. Did it not think to refer to that due diligence and ask itself why one of the world’s largest fund managers was backing the management of the organisation who’s integrity it was questioning.

In a report by Money Marketing, Aegon confirmed it will resume electronic transfers to PensionBee, providing it gets “personal assurances” from the directors of the company about key aspects of transfer process.

“We are seeking assurance from PensionBee that they always capture clear authority from clients to carry out the transfer, and that they provide appropriate warnings and information to customers to ensure they understand any features within their current policy which will not be replicated within the PensionBee pension.”

This ranks as one of the weakest climb downs in the history of financial services – “personal assurances”? Knowing the management of Pensions Bee I have personal assurance a plenty of their good intentions. I can also see that the customers who’ve been able to escape the departure lounge are extremely happy in the Pension BeeHive.

I have never seen a trust pilot score this high (Pension Plowman)

So what is going on?

Why should Aegon hold itself up to general ridicule, risk the wrath of the FCA, the pension press and most importantly its own stakeholders – it’s shareholders and customers?

I don’t know. I don’t know why the Aegon IGC have not intervened as they could, I don’t understand why BlackRock, which recently sold its DC platform business to Aegon (and which manages the greatest part of Pension Bee’s money) didn’t intervene.

I don’t understand why the FCA hasn’t commented.

I don’t understand why the start-up, is being bullied in this way and why Aegon cannot see how embarrassing it is to their staff, who are being tarred with the corporate brush.

None of this makes any sense at all.

In one sense, I don’t care much, so long as the 874 people in the departure lounge catch their flight in the next couple of days and buzz off to happier pastures.

Corporate dis-Grace.

dis-Grace

But I don’t think we can just let this matter drop. It is time to hold Adrian Grace and his management team to account for the distress they have caused PesnionBee’s customers and PensionBee (which is also out of pocket over this).

If we think it is ok for Aegon to trap customers in the pension departure lounge, we presumably think it’s ok for others – including NEST – who frankly haven’t got a much better record, nor the various third party administrators running our single employer DC pension plans.

While they debate standards for the passing of data to the Pensions Dashboard, many administrators still haven’t got to first base when it comes to passing DC transfer values to third parties.

Aegon is actually in the Origo transfer network and so is PensionBee; there was no excuse for Aegon not to have treated PensionBee as it does the other members of the network and exchange monies with them as pension partners.

But most of the occupational DC pensions are not subscribing to the Origo pension service. NEST tell us that they do subscribe but only have a process to take money in – not pay money out!!!

In short, if we allow Aegon off the hook, then we allow a great part of the pension industry to assume that pots can follow members at the pace they – the fiduciaries dictate.

This is as ludicrous as the attitude of Aegon. Driving up administration standards for occupational pensions is as important as changing the customer care of some insurers.

Support PASA in improving transfer standards.

Fortunately, the rights of ordinary members of occupational pensions to first class administration are championed by an independent body for which I have great respect.

Margaret Snowden’s PASA organisation, which (among other things) campaigns for the rights of deferred DC members is holding a session of its conference in London on 13th February (next Tuesday afternoon).

Margaret Snowden

Margaret (Princess that she is) has released a press release which tells us

“With GDPR, IORP II and Pensions Dashboard on the horizon, data management must be top priority for trustees and it is important that deferred members are not forgotten in this process.

Although active members may present the potential challenges for years to come, in actual fact, it is .. deferred members who pose the greatest number of current challenges for schemes.

Deferreds account for a huge proportion of overall membership and liability, so not giving them proper attention can lead to any number of problems. These might include transfer requests and concerns about delays, as well as poor data quality hampering de-risking activities for schemes thinking about the ‘end-game’

.“Our conference has been set-up to provide people with practical advice on how to better manage data and improve transfer processes, whilst looking at how new kinds of technology might improve the way deferred members interact with administrators and create a more positive process for all”

I think they’re talking mainly about DB transfers , but DC transfer processes are just as important.

Sadly I can’t make it , but I hope that some people reading this article will, and will ask

“why so many third party pension administrators do not use the Origo clearance system”.

If you want to find out more about the good work PASA does, here is the link to PASA.

If you want to register for the Conference, here is the registration link. I thoroughly recommend the event.

Posted in pensions | Tagged Aegon, Margaret Snowden, PASA, PensionBee, pensions, Rom Samova, standards, transfers | Leave a comment

Watch out for that land down under! Australia’s as confused as we are!

Posted on April 25, 2018 by henry tapper

Australia is the land where the market never crashes. It is a nation of double digit compulsory pension contributors , of universal pension engagement and an example to us all.

Well some of this is true, but if recent reports coming out of the Royal Commission hearings are accurate, there’s something rotten in the state of Super.

David Harris, who is our most trusted Aussie watcher, has sent me a series of articles in the Australian press that make my hair stand on end. The sheer front of some of the large organisations involved (AMP especially) and the barefaced cheek of some of the advisers smacks of complacency. Is Australia beginning to believe its own hype?

As David points out , this case might as well be called “BSPS in the sunshine“. Top financial advisers get celebrity status in Oz, Sam Henderson is such an adviser. Like certain souls we could mention in South Wales, Henderson is clearly oblivious to his misdemeanours, he’s happy to get a rap on the knuckles just so long as stays on the media A-list.

In March this year, Sam Henderson proposed a deal with the FPA that would see him admit to multiple failings in the financial advice her provided to Ms McKenna and agree to implement staff training, a review of current practices and the appointment of an independent expert to review those changes.

It would have also required the FPA to agree to be restrained from publishing Mr Henderson’s name in relation to the proceedings.

The FPA wanted an additional provision that would prevent Mr Henderson appearing in the media for a year. That proposal was not acceptable to Mr Henderson.

Behind this is a feisty woman called Donna McKenna who paid Henderson for celebrity advice, double checked it and found she’d be losing $500,000 Aussie dollars if she took it.

The advice would have involved transferring her DB rights into Sam’s own funds. Ring any bells?

But it seems Sam is bigger than his trade association or the Australian Regulator. He even had one of his own staff impersonating McKenna (caught on record) to get the money moving.

This is Crocodile Dundee stuff with a financial adviser as the crocodile. It seems some providers are no better

Relevant to UK

As with the Cooper report, the Royal Commission is showing that just because you throw a lot of money at retirement, doesn’t mean you get a lot of value. Cooper showed that value for money in Super is not that great and that the Australian obsession with strutting their Super balances, hides an insecurity in the system , about how long these balances will last.

As in the UK , there’s evidence of “double dipping”, where feckless older-folk spend their savings and fall back on the state. There’s also evidence of people hanging on to their balances too scared to spend them. There is very little evidence of Australians buying annuities and no move yet to create some kind of collective decumulation vehicle (as is happening over here at Royal Mail).

All of which gets me thinking that we should be very wary of blindly following the free collective bargaining that led to these high super contributions and that we should put infrastructure in place, before cranking the AE lever beyond 8%.

Pot follows member

Deep in the heart of Bermondsey, I attended a very weird event last night – hosted by Share Action. It was supposed to be for millennials but was packed out with people in their fifties (and a few millennials from Share Action). Lesson, don’t put on an event on the night of Liverpool v Roma?

Share Action are going to campaign for an aussie-style pot follows member workplace pension system and claim they’ve been speaking to civil servants who see the clearing house system in Aus as “inevitable”.

They had an Aussie millennial in, who seemed a bit confused – they should have had David Harris to hold his hand! We talked about how we could replicate the Aussie System where members not employers choose where these compulsory contributions go.

I’m of the view that given a few million of development capital, PensionSync could probably offer a payroll clearing system within three years acting as a hub between the major payrolls and the diminishing number of workplace pension providers. This would at least mean that you, rather than your employer, determined which provider got your money.

Such a system would be a nail in the coffin of the company pension , companies would now be paying into pensions with little control over the pensions themselves. Some would argue that the days of employers acting as fiduciaries of their employee’s money should be long over. Others point to companies who do this well and argue the opposite.

This is a conversation that will run and run, the Pensions Minister is showing absolutely no interest in getting involved, I suspect he finds overseas comparisons as confusing as everyone else. That’s certainly the conclusion of this article in IPE. Who knows the truth?

The truth is as all over the place as pensions scheme governance. It is very hard to work out whether your employer’s workplace pension scheme is up to much as the Government has resolutely refused to promote comparison services (such as http://www.pensionplaypen.com) and there is no incentive or onus on employers to help staff understand their pension.

Share Action are trying to change that by ranking workplace pensions. I’m pleased they are bringing the matter to the public’s attention but fear they will get precious little support from IGCs (who for the most part are against benchmarks and league tables), consultants (who need you to pay for these things) and Government, who would rather everything went to NEST.

Pot will only follow member when “gravity” is introduced.

Water flows with gravity downhill to the sea, money flows towards a single destination when financial gravity is applied.

Financial gravity comes from giving people trusted pathways. If you want to see it at work – go on sites like Go Compare, Compare the Market and Money Supermarket. Where there is trust and a simple user journey, people will follow pathways and do things.

People could consolidate pensions using financial gravity, but that would require the sluices and dams and levies in place to be replaced by easy ways for money to flow. As with the workplace , legacy pensions could flow from pot to pot without impediment, provided the gravity is restored.

Pulling it all together

We’re all vaguely in the same place. Share Action knows that if people can see all their money in one place and spend it from one pot, that engagement in pensions will increase and so the quality of the investment process.

Australia knows that by giving people a “pot for life” that they can hand to each new employer to fill each pay period, engagement in Super will increase…

Government knows that if it can get a workable pension dashboard in place, much of what they want to happen in terms of engagement and governance – will also happen.

But the trouble is making all this happen!

We really need champions who can make things happen. Australia needs less crocodiles and more crocodile Dundees, we need less talking and more action, Government needs to see the private sector coming up with solutions that can allow it to legislate for change.

A few champions, can create the financial gravity to make things happen. Catherine Howarth and her team at Share Action can be champions, but they’ll need more support from the industry – than they got last night in Bermondsey!

Case study one

Donna McKenna is a Fair Work commissioner giving evidence about financial advice given to her by Henderson Maxwell. Despite Donna McKenna’s insistence that she didn’t want a self-managed super fund, the four paragraphs of instructions from Sam Henderson to his paraplanner were focused on establishing a self-managed super fund.

Mr Henderson admitted that, given Ms McKenna would have lost half-a-million dollars in deferred benefit if her super had been shifted out of SASS, that the advice was not in her best interests. However, he said this was due to research errors that failed to identify the nature of the deferred benefit super scheme.

Henderson Maxwell charged an upfront preparation fee of $4,950 and would have charged a establishment fee for Henderson Maxwell managed account of $1,980, plus brokerage fees of $4,105 and ongoing fee of $14,642 for investment management services. That fee would have been materially higher than her existing superannuation accounts.

Mr Henderson admitted that the statement of advice did not contain any information on the question that Ms McKenna went to see an adviser to find out about, which was how the changes to superannuation rules taking effect on July 1, 2017 might affect her.

Case Study 2

Andy Haldane2

We have to do better than this! Whether in Australia or the UK, people need to properly understand what they’ve got, what their options are and what it’s going to cost them .

Posted in pensions | Tagged Andy Haldane, Australia, Clearing, pensions, Pot follows member, Super | Leave a comment

“Financial Home for the over 50s”

Posted on April 24, 2018 by henry tapper

retirement home spring

Well that’s what Oliver Wyman is telling insurers with workplace pension books to aspire to be.

I haven’t seen this phrase in any IGC report but it does it for me. I well remember meetings when I was at Zurich 15 years ago when we came to the same conclusion as Oliver Wyman – “DC is a mugs game unless you can increase the lifetime ownership of the client” (we may not have used quite these words).

Here’s what a Financial Home might look like; (words courtesy of the excellent Corporate Adviser)

The report argues that over the longer term, insurers will derive revenues from multiple sources, including general insurance, banking services, and increased involvement in non-financial expenditure such as recreation, energy, long term care residence, power of attorney and funeral planning. They will also increase the revenue they earn from existing business lines, such as equity release. The client’s lifestyle and financial profile provides a strong base for continuously developing and enhancing products and services

All of which begs two questions…

Will people choose to stay with the insurers
Can insurers convert to being “financial homes”.

Both are big challenges. I am 56 and I am seriously unimpressed by the User Experience at my insurer. Am I close to thinking of L&G as a Financial Home? No! Are there better alternatives – probably!

Here are the Office of National Statistics 2016 population stats (by age). The colour coding is mine – as you get greener – you get more profitable.

population You don’t have to be a genius to see that the much talked about intergenerational subsidies apply. The green people subsidise the pink people and if all the green people bugger off elsewhere, then the whole tower of people above them is liable to collapse.

So keeping green people like me happy , is kind of important to insurance companies.

So where could I go?

It may have escaped your notice, but if Royal Mail presses ahead with its CDC plan, all 43,000 Posties contributing handsomely to the Zurich run Royal Mail DC plan will be saving into a new CDC plan. Small wonder that the ABI is not a member of the Friends of CDC. If you work for someone who decides to jack in an insured DC plan and upgrade to CDC, you will have a pre-prepared financial home – and it won’t be with an insurer!

On the other hand, you may decide you want the superior customer experience of a Hargreaves Lansdown or a Pensions Bee where you can manage your retirement income on a smart phone. The last time I looked the Service Level for my getting a payment from my workplace pension is 10 working days – that’s not quite so smart.

If you have a reasonable amount of money in pensions and you want a Financial Home for the rest of your days, it is reasonable to suppose you will go house-hunting as you get into the dark green box (above).

The problem for the insurers is not just that workplace pensions are unprofitable, it’s that everything else is very profitable indeed. Not just your competitor’s product but all the product lines that don’t sit on the workplace pension platform.

To “re-platform” workplace pensions is an expensive business. My lot are still using the Platform Eagle Star sold them back in the nineties. There’s a lot of lipstick on the pig- but it’s still a pig.

Sadly that means that meaty DC customers like me are likely to be offski to a fancy drawdown environment, as I get with Pension Bee with virtually no overhead and the prospect of big fat price reductions over time (in your dreams Henry- love Romi). If I don’t migrate to the Bee Hive, I might cash in my chips and transfer to a CDC plan in return for a wage for life – not as flexible but a very comfy financial home.

Will the insurers get their acts together? Well one or two are getting there, Vitality, LV and Just do look like they’re ready for the 21st century and showing that insurance can be relevant to millennials as much as my generation. But they are not in the savings game and they can build not to defend books but to capture the money of the workplace providers.

When I look at the slide below, I have to ask myself, how many of these logos will be preoccupying me in years to come. I suspect that none will provide me with my Retirement Home. partners

Posted in Payroll, pensions | Tagged IGC, pensions, Playpen, retirement home | Leave a comment

Martin Lewis and Facebook

Posted on April 23, 2018 by henry tapper

Martin Lewis is a god, he is followed by millions because he is consistent in what he does. He does not advertise products.

And yet Facebook allow advertisers to hi-jack his brand, even his image and use it to endorse their products – which are usually scams.

The worst of this is that no-one is more scrupulous than Martin Lewis not to make irresponsible statements. He rarely if ever comments on pensions because pension outcomes are speculative, Martin deals in the hear and now. His uber-cautious approach to financial management relies on people making lots of small decisions well. To become debt-free is a typical aim of his followers. This may not be a sophisticated strategy, but its one that ordinary people understand.

Nothing could be further from this simple cautious approach that the rubbish that is peddled by the scammers.

Facebook

It is a great shame that Facebook, which is used by precisely the people that use Martin’s http://www.moneysavingexpert.com , pays so little attention to the adverts that appear upon its pages that it undermines the great work Lewis has and is doing.

There is no point waiting for regulation to catch up. The best way to talk to Facebook, is to contact Nicola Mendelsohn at Facebook. These are her details, if you have the capacity to send a linked in inmail -that is the best route.

My message to her this morning went like this

Martin Lewis

I am a Facebook user and a follower of Martin Lewis. I urge you to get Facebook to clean up its act and not allow further ads that falsely use Martin’s name. I want a good Facebook and allowing scammers to advertise in this way not only devalues Martin’s work, it devalues Facebook.

A way forward

Social media is bursting at the seams, shirt buttons are flying off in all directions as muscly beasts like Facebook, grow.

Along the way, there are problems, this is one of them. It is not enough for Facebook to sort out the problems associated with Martin Lewis; Facebook must put in place controls to ensure that all paid for content is subject to the standards expected of the Advertising Standards Board.

Being new, and digital and having no single regulatory framework to work in , is no mitigation for this behaviour.

I hope that the millions of ordinary people who support Martin, will put pressure on Facebook to change. Facebook cannot hide behind some cross-border regulatory arbitrage. It should be bound by the common laws of decency, properly summed up by the phrase “treat customers fairly”. In this case, they should not be allowing Martin Lewis’ name and image to be used to endorse products he would never entertain for any purpose (least of all to advertise).

I wrote a blog on vulnerability on Saturday, it talked of the way pay-day loans are targeting student grant payments. You can read it here. But that abuse pales into insignificance compared with the problems Martin Lewis has uncovered. My blog may inform this one, in its dealing with “vulnerable customers”.

We might think we are individually too small to make a difference, but that is not the case. The people who make most difference are the huge numbers of us who care enough to sign petitions, write notes and support the work of the great campaigners,

Martin Lewis, Paul Lewis, Angie Brooks and all the people who appear on this blog as heroes, do so because they take the trouble to call-out when they see a scam. The least we can do – is drop Nicola Mendelsohn a line.

Posted in Facebook, pensions, twitter | 1 Comment

Opportunities knock – on “vulnerability watch”

Posted on April 22, 2018 by henry tapper

Thanks Debora Price for this

If you’re a student in Manchester and you’re desperate to keep going out with your mates (rather than studying), help is at hand!

For only 1160% APR, you could get up to £350 of drinking time till your student loan comes in.

As Debora Price points out, this is brilliant opportunism. The User Experience will be first class (until someone sends the boys round) and the website’s for “smart-pigs”.

Smart-Pig.com is a trading style of FCL Consumer Finance Ltd. It’s run by a couple of Warwick University students one of whom “got into trouble with a payday loan”, Apparantly – the experience was so bad that they decided to create their own lender their own way, to get a better deal for students.

The deal may look good but it isn’t good. Three years ago the Advertising Standard Authority sided with Money Saving Expert in an adjudication against FCL who were then using irresponsible prize promotions and pub-based advertising to go after the most vulnerable of student.

The ads must not appear in their current form. We told Smart-Pig.com to ensure prize promotions were not irresponsible in their presentation and that ads did not target students in an irresponsible way.

You can read the full judgement here.

“Vulnerability watch?”

Financial scams are born out of weak buying. The Office of Fair Trading made the connection precisely when analysing the market I know best (around the time Smart-Pig was getting started. OFT

The shadier side of marketing , focusses on where most money can be made. You don’t get much margin-pressure from vulnerable clients.

Drink now – pay later.

Of course with pay-day loans are the other way round from pensions. You get all the gratification up front and have a lifetime to pay the price,

Getting your student loan is of course not the same as “pay-day” as you have to pay your student loan back out of future pay. Of course, if you really want to screw up your life, you can chose not to pay back your student loan by never going to work. Or you may find yourself – through no fault of your own – in low-paid jobs.

But if you want to keep on whooping it up in pubs with your mates, then you are going to have to earn at some stage in the future – short of a life of crime – your earnings will have to be taxed and that will trigger the repayment of student loans – which will curtail your capacity to plan for your future.

In short, decisions taken in 2018 will set the tone for decisions taken throughout the rest of your life. Your credit-ratings will be impacted – your employment prospects will be impacted and your liver will be impacted – if you decide to borrow money to get pissed with your mates – when at Uni.

So please – students – instead of being financial numpties – avoid these pseudo- payday loans – don’t get into bad financial habits and stay away from smart-pig and their like.

Students don’t need to be vulnerable.

Most students are out to work hard and play hard. I’m pleased to hear my son is having some all-nighters and not at all sorry to hear he’s having to spend his summer earning a few bob to pay for it.

He doesn’t have to be vulnerable, but if he makes himself so, he won’t be getting bailed out by me. The Bank of mum and dad is physically closed and if he wants to try the internet banking version, the computer says “no”.

I don’t know if he will read this – I doubt many students would bother. Most don’t need the likes of me preaching to them.

This blog is aimed at parents who may or may-not be aware of their children’s financial situation but should be only too aware that drugs are not the only things you can score in the toilets that students frequent.

It doesn’t have to end like this

Posted in pensions | Tagged financial education, pay-day loans, pensions, Smart-pig, students | 1 Comment

Lady Lucy out lock-busting (again)!

Posted on April 22, 2018 by henry tapper

What’s that coming over the hill?!?

The absence of “help” on pensions is very evident to the general public.

We should not give up on providing people with a definitive course of action.

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And so to pot follows member

What can the Government do?

We have the tools.

Whatever happened to “pot follows member”.

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The 2017-18 IGC report still engages

Value for Money

In Conclusion

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In conclusion

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How did we get here?

WHY HAS NOTHING HAPPENED?

Just like PPI!

Well done Hymans Robertson (and a few others)

Possible solutions

In conclusion

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Value for Money

Effectiveness.

Engagement

In conclusion

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Effective

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Engagement – “no longer a brochure”

Is this report effective?

Value for money

In conclusion

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Value for money

Engagement

Effectiveness

In conclusion

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Phoenix – the island of misfit pensions.

Value for money (for sad pandas)

Engaging (sad pandas).

Effective (for sad pandas)?

In conclusion

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To fudge or not to fudge?

Value for money work

Engagement

Effectiveness

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The dashboard would be a single Government sponsored dashboard and be funded by an industry levy from April 2019.

Taking pension spending away from advisers

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2018 and all that

Value for Money

Innovation in retirement

ESG

CETVs

What shape are the IGCs in?

Why does this matter?

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The Price of Freedom

The three arguments for more certain collective outcomes

Collectives add value

Certainty of income from longevity pooling