“Adequacy is the defining challenge of our generation”

says incoming Chair of the Association of Consulting Actuaries , Stewart Hastie

I do not know of anyone who aspires to just get by, be ok, have an adequate lifestyle. Being a human being is about more than “just getting by”, it’s about leading our best possible life.

So long as we aspire to adequacy , we will live pretty dull lives. Even the homeless can enjoy the beauty of a sunny day.

The reality of the “adequacy” debate is that the “adequacy” relates to someone else. But happiness is not dependent on the adequacy of a pension , we look forward to retirement as a time of release from the servitude of a paid job, a time when we need rely on our current labour to pay the bills.

And the messaging that surrounds “adequacy” has more to do with austerity and the poor-house than liberty from the toad-work.

In this country, we only require people to contribute 35 years of pensionable service to get the state pension , if people don’t get the full 35 years and have no other means of support, they qualify for pension credit which is the door to more benefits. We may not have a perfect safety net , but it is getting better by the year, as we upgrade the state pension by the triple lock.

We do not have a pension  “adequacy crisis” so much as a crisis in confidence in our pensions.

Consequently, many of us aspire to no more than buying-out our pension schemes, perhaps an “adequate” end-game but certainly not an optimal one.

Mill reminds us that Liberty is more than the prevention of harm , it is the pursuit of happiness. If we have no greater aspiration than not to be a burden on others then the state pension system is all that we should expect, and whatever form it takes in future, it will prevent us harming others.

The private system, which is what Stewart is talking about, was once described by the late Frank Field as “Britain’s economic miracle”. How sad it is to hear it downgraded in this headline

This morning I will be sitting down with three friends to see how we can make the retirements of hundreds of thousands of manual workers “brilliant”. We are not going to be using words like “adequacy”, we will be talking about paying “Christmas bonuses”, ensuring money lasts as long as it’s needed and that standards of living do not fall as people pass into their final years.

This positive outlook should govern the work of the Association of Consulting Actuaries. Three weeks ago I sat in Staples Inn and listened to Terry Pullinger that he swapped a get rich quick job for a career as a postman, not to have an adequate retirement but to have a great one. This morning I will be renewing that conversation , proud to be working with people who have a mindset that sees “adequate” as failure!

As a “never to be” an actuary, I wish Stewart well in his term of office and will do all I can to help him, his firm and his clients to have brilliant retirements!