Malcom Small outside the IOD

Malcolm Small is what can best be called an “operator”, a “smooth operator” at that. He is very clear thinking and he presents cautious solutions to big problems in an elegant way.

I’ve known him for a few years – he is effective at what he does so when he told me a few months ago that he was planning to set up an effective source of information to help those approaching retirement take sensible decisions , my ears pricked up.

On Thursday, Malcolm launched his Retirement Income Alliance, with a simple elegant logo that smacks of social media. Yesterday I met Malcolm in his London Office – the vast business networking hall of the Institute of Directors (where he once was Pension Director).

“It’s Facebook for pensions” he told me. Well Facebook’s been up and running a few years and is proving quite popular – primarily because it is free to use. RIA will not be free to use, it will have a monthly subscription cost which will pay for the management of content and maintenance of the site. The pump is being primed by the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners and its far-sighted champion Malcolm Booth.

The purpose of the NAOP is precisely that of what Malcolm is planning, but it sends its members bulletins by post rather than at the click of a mouse. One suspects that the RIA will take on the NAOP’s social purpose (and most likely its customers).

This kind of service becomes popular when- as Martin Lewis pioneered- the service provides financial savings through discount codes on the essential services for wrinklies like me – Cruises , mobility scooters and those little blue pills….

I jest, the RIA’s demographic is the fifty something , as fit as a flea and likely to be dancing around in priapic swinging parties in Surbiton. The constituency that take their cue from MoneyMail and Paul Lewis and the Daily Telegraph’s Personal Finance section.

The analogies with journalism are obvious, content management is now as big a business as content creation, many magazines survive with an editor and no more. Bloggers like me are much in demand as we produce the pieces that these organs need to justify their existence, so I anticipate that some of what you read for free on http://www.henrytapper.com , you’ll be able to pay for on the RIA!

And that is the way things work these days, for I have no difficulty with being published for free. The purpose of blogging is partly self-expression ( a daily digital dump) and partly a need to be heard- the business of ideas being integral to the success of consultancies such as First Actuarial.

The combination of targeted discount codes, good quality content and a third ingredient – signposting to “paid for” services could be compelling.

The X-factor

Malcolm’s X-factor is his independence. His team are similarly independent of the usual concerns of the financial services industry, gathering assets under management.

If RIA can convince the general public that – as MSN and MoneyMail do, they act for their membership and not their sponsors, then they will have a worthy and successful product.

But independence is hard won and easily lost. Too often, ventures such as RIA sell-out to those with  deep pockets who destroy value by turning a membership into a prospective client base.

The conflicts that arise from being both a source of information and a means of promotion give rise to Regulatory concern but – when clocked by the membership- render the service useless.

Will it work?

I have seen any number of subscription services seek to tap up our need for relevant independent financial information. From the Country Gentleman’s Association to the Skipton Building Society’s Retirement Savvy, I have been involved with many. None so far have done for retirement planning , what Martin Lewis has done for our day to day financial management.

One thing cannot be – is a rival to Pension Wise.

It will work if it can compliment and work with Pension Wise and in particular with The Pension Advisory Service.

It will work if it can do digitally what the NAOP has done by post and if it can win the hearts and minds of the Trustees and employers who fed the NAOP its membership.

I hope RIA works. As I wrote on the CityWire article arising from Thursday’s press release, if anyone can make this work- it is Malcolm Small.