Mike Ambery, who I have some time for, is  knocking out a weekly podcast which he posts on linked in.

As far as I can see, this is not being published elsewhere and is only available from Mike’s Linked in feed. It is short, stat heavy and delivered with a deadpan delivery and a lot of questions.

I mention this , because Michael Ambery also appears as a guest on Nico and Darren’s podcast, which appears on all podcast sites, is long , wordy and delivered with a lot of banter – mainly about Arsenal football club.

Mike Ambery was , until he departed on Wednesday for Australia, someone who I have been seeing a lot of – in the flesh – because Standard Life are actually exploring areas of DC delivery that I am interested in and Mike has been chosen as the public face of Standard Life’s and Phoenix’s pensions.

He has earned this role through his work as a pension consultant and in particular his public championing of better consumer outcomes through the publication of VFM metrics and the provision of better retirement choices for those looking to move from pot savers to pot spenders.

His podcast poses many questions such as “should private equity be more frequently valued?”. Michael doesn’t look to answer the questions though I note that he has solicited strong comments in his linked in blog

Questions and Answers

I had thought that the question “what does value for money” mean to you, would have solicited a degree of consensus after 70 episodes of the Aspinall/Philp opus , but we now hear that one of this partnership has decided that helping consumers to work out whether they are getting value for money from their pensions is a waste of time. Instead – we should focus on giving people what they need (let them eat cake).

I had thought that we had arrived at a consensus that illiquid unquoted investments have their place in pension schemes (Mansion House or Mansion House 2) but I find we don’t. So unless a company is quoted in its own right or available within a quoted investment trust, it should be uninvestable by those in DC schemes.

The approach adopted in podcasts varies. Ambery’s makes no claims for itself but sets its agenda by quoting the thoughts and the data of others.

The VFM podcast relies on actuarial infallibility and political acumen.

This has been rather punctured lately by the VFM two’s assertion that we were in for a hung parliament when the election was announced. This was neither statistically or politically likely and I’m pleased to see that that prediction has been withdrawn, but it does cast doubt on the wisdom of the podcast’s shoot from the hip style.

The crisp and pithy style of Ambery’s – which is delivered with a video (this one from down-under) has something to say to the VFM 2 as has the immaculate manners of Mike Ambery in not getting drawn into a protracted spat on his well held position.

If you have the time – and I recommend it to anyone mowing a large lawn (as I did yesterday), here it is. I say large, because you can cut a lot of grass in 83 minutes.

Perhaps the most overused phrase of a podcaster is “I’m conscious of time”. We all have a duty not to waste ours, or other people’s.