At first the Arab Spring amazed me as random.

Now I can  make sense of what happened and see how it all tied in .

I’m sure the means by which people talked and events were reported added to the sense of anarchy. Many are still to make sense of change that was driven by people rather than by ideology.

Now I understand how this all works – and it all ties in!

It’s all kicking off for retirement savings right now. The old bloaters who turn up for NAPF conferences must be wondering where all this is leading.

Better outcomes from Defined  Ambition

We are at the back end of a consultation on DA which (let’s hope) leads us past the death-trap Bridge Judgement and will allow the Queen in her speech on 3rd June to lay before parliament a plan to allow DB and DC plans to create and deliver to expectations without the dead hand of FRS17, PPF levies or class actions from disappointed pensioners

Better measures for savers

We are in the middle of a consultation with the DWP which is all about

Strengthening the governance framework for Workplace Pensions, creating admin benchmarks, benchmarks for transaction costs and ensuring that we the public know what a good workplace pension looks like.

The impact will be to accelerate Darwinian survivalist principles, the good workplace pensions will prosper , the tens of thousands of weak ones- will need to shape up or shape out.

Freedom of Choice in Retirement

We are only 11 months from the implementation of the New Annuity Framework which will give people more choice on how to spend their retirement savings and allow people to think of pensions as part of their financial planning (and not an annuity cul-de-sac) Local

Local Government Pension Scheme reforms

These will massively alter the shape of fund management within our largest Funded Pension Scheme, The removal of £85bn from active management and the complex fund of fund structures used by each individual pension scheme will radically change fund management.

We may see all this change as random, but I don’t think it is- it’s all tied in, driven by the same agenda which is now being driven by three Government Departments and increasingly being embraced by the industry as the inevitable consequence of people knowing what is going on.

As with the Arab Spring, I think it is because of the empowerment not just of journalists but of economists, pension experts, fund managers, political pundits and everyday consumers to say “enough is enough” that this change is happening.

As with the Arab Spring, we may not be aware of all the connectivity while the revolution is happening, but with the benefit of hindsight we will look back to these last couple of years and the couple of years to come and say

– “this was when it all kicked off- and now we see it all ties in”.

This article first appeared in http://www.pensionplaypen.com/top-thinking