Terry
Here is my friend Terry. He along with many other experts on what savers want from pensions is nowhere to be seen up here in Edinburgh.
Terry helps me to remember what ordinary people want when I get up myself. I remembered this when I met with the FCA yesterday afternoon with Sacha Sadan and some young ladies. Sacha is a bright person who makes complicated decisions easy for people by labelling funds so people understand what’s going on. Sacha said that he spent his time talking to people about how money is managed and used two words that have been in limited usage together “working class“.
Walking home late at night after a talk from Mr Fraser, a polished speaker who writes for the Spectator, having been at a talk by Conservative spokesperson and former leader William Haig , I had got used to being told what the right thought. But only Sacha wanted to talk about the working class, and he worked for the FCA in Stratford.
John pointed out that the PLSA has no representation on its board from unions any more. There are no thoughts to be shared from member representatives other than trustees who seem increasingly professional and interested only in getting rid of pensions to insurers.
I went to some drinks do organised by a consultancy at a posh hotel yesterday evening. I was talking to these people from a professional trustee shop when one of the hosts who clearly thought he’d take over the conversation looked at me with disdain. I saw the badge that had been made for me called me a “freelance investor”. Well perhaps I should go and talk with the Communication Workers Union and get a badge like Terry’s because apart from Andrew Dobbie of Unison there is not one union representative in the 2000 people at this event.
I walked out of the drinks do feeling humbled by my being the only person who was not drinking large amounts of expensive alcohol.
Maybe I would find Sacha , I did and he told me I and Sophie would be getting from the FCA all the information he had shared with me to help ordinary people – working class people.
Maybe the professional trustees and the consultants and all the other champagne quaffing individuals who only wanted to talk about “de-risking” should remember that pensions is about working people whose voice is not getting heard.
I sacked off the various events last night, favouring a walk home and a home cooked too (plus a couple of things that I needed to do sober). Unfortunately, it sounds like I needed to be elsewhere cracking heads together. I’m in said advisers’ office for a neeting this morning so I’ll opt to knock some sore heads together instead. They won’t listen though.
Union colleagues certainly used to attend from industry-wide schemes like Railways and Mineworkers, Henry.
Their boards, like Stagecoach’s once upon a time, have 50% trade union MNTs or pensioner MNTs, who in the case of railways tended to come admittedly from the “officer” classes.
Are the AMNT not represented at the conference?
Other trade union members may tend to go to the LGPS conference these days?
In DC world, Stagecoach certainly used to have 50% union members on its master trust oversight committee. John Hamilton will know its current composition.
But the DB regulations were never raised above a minimum of one-third MNTs, despite vague promises from some politicians to increase member oversight.
I’m afraid PLSA locks former members/old fogies like me out from reading the conference delegates’ list, or even reading their conference blogs or seeing anything other than very short video clips by good people like James Walsh.
Maybe it’ll all show up on YouTube one of these days …