Let’s take this change in pension’s weather to Liverpool!

 

It was good to hear David Porter on this podcast standing up for some very old fashioned ideas.

1. 1. That VFM can be used to create competition that creates better pensions
   2. That pension outcomes can be measured by the amount of pension created from savings
   3. That the great problem is not with saving but with converting savings into a lifetime income
   4. That pensions can and should make a difference not just to those who benefit from them but to the society in which we live.

The prevailing scepticism within parts of pensions can be summed up by this comment from one well-known industry commentator

The only real way to improve pensions is with simple, transparent and cheap DC pots, and higher contributions.

Porter has spent his career championing innovation at Alliance Bernstein, Mobius and now with The People’s Pension. He does not take easy choices but seeks out opportunities to get good things done.

Last week we had the opportunity to consider pensions in new ways. I have spent some time recently with Terry Pullinger. Here he is talking about the new CDC scheme at Royal Mail

Terry is speaking at Pension PlayPen’s Tuesday Morning Coffee Morning – you can get the link here. If you are (like me) , travelling to Liverpool between 10.30 and 11.30 be sure to pack a set of buds or headphones! I hope that Avanti West Coast’s wi-fi is up to it!

Last week, Willis Towers Watson asked us to reconsider pensions as pensions refusing to accept the new orthodoxy that the best we can offer people is a pot and a DIY manual for a pension.

We also had a paper from the PMI, supported by Schroders which asked us to think of Lifetime savings that can take people out of debt , out of renting and ultimately into the dignity of retirement , rent and mortgage free with a pension to boot. Behind it the indomitable and indefatigable Ruston Smith.

Next week we will see pension leaders coming together in Liverpool for the PLSA conference. I will be there as a freelance journalist to assess whether this new mood of optimism about pensions is more than a chimera.

I hope that I will display the same positive mental attitude as David has on this blog.

We need more David Porters, more Terry Pullingers , more Ruston Smiths and more Rash Bhabras.

 

We need more Pensions and fewer pots!