Edi Truell
Prepared for a new era?
I feel that the last five months of my life have been preparing me and the pension scheme I represent, Pension SuperHaven for a very different pension system. The very different pension system I believe will arrive with an impending Pension Act (via a Pension Bill announced in the next few weeks). Those five months have been a depressing time for my health but I hope to take a step back to my old self at the end of April. I hope the depressing state of pensions will be turned around by restoring pensions as a default – not something to cast off (freedom).
It’s worth me mentioning the person who has been responsible for Pension SuperHaven and without whom I might not be in a position to push it forward. That person is Edi Truell. Edi is a complicated and deep man who together with his sadly “late” brother, has done much for British pensions.
Without Edi we would not have a consolidating Local Government Pension Authority as a single pension fund.
Without Edi we would not have a bulk annuity system with the vision that his Pension Insurance Corporation brough it.
Without him we would not have the idea of Superfunds. Sadly he has not been able to get superfunds to deliver to his vision and the Pension SuperFund he operates now backs pension schemes wanting to do more with their investments.
But Edi has enabled a capital backing to support and ultimately replace employers in providing the backing of paying pensions.
Last week I spent an evening with Calum Cooper, a friend and the actuary of Clara of Superfund. I hope he recognises the debt Clara owes for the intrepid endeavour of Edi Truell. Calum will be speaking with us on Tuesday, I’m really pleased to hear he is getting the ear of Government, he is part of a process initiated by Edi.
We are prepared for a new era of pensions and Edi Truell is central for a new system that will range from converting Nest into a pension rather than a saving scheme and will allow other master trusts to do the same. Pension SuperHaven is part of the new system and I am confident that it will deliver pensions to millions , just as Nick Lyons (my mayor) predicts.
It is not me who deserve the praise, it is Edi Truell.
A bigger picture
Edi Truell
Many people want to have a go at Edi. I am not one. I have worked with him for a number of years, he has invested in my AgeWage business and we intend to help realise his vision.
It is hard to see the vision as he does and many of the colleagues we have worked with are no longer are no longer at Pension SuperFund. A new group, perhaps more practical and more organised have taken their place. But the spirit that makes large companies and inspirational leaders like Nicholas Lyons come back and look at Pension SuperHaven is because of Edi Truell.
It means a new treaty with the pension industry, most importantly its legislators and regulators. I support the DWP and TPR and am confident that the vision for pensions that is behind what Truell has done, is driving change in law and regulation.
I am hoping that the scepticism about a brighter future will disappear over the next four years. It is critically important that we get real and deliver the kind of future that is in the belly of Truell, Lyons and in mine. My hope is because of others – like Keating, Hamilton, Cameron Brown, Scott, McGrath, Young and Compton.
Most importantly it is a vision that I hope will become evident in the weeks to come. We should remember Truell who has been so important to our thinking for some time!
Years of hard work that I’ve only tapped into recently.
