A comment over the weekend from Jnamdoc in relation to the criticism of CDC in the Telegraph
Sadly, I’ve noticed a good number of articles this last week all in effect challenging the innovative thinking quickly emerging about the delivery of pensions for working people that are supportive off and supported by investment and growth over the whole life cycle of the worker and pensioner journey.
Journalists love to receive or be planted with stories, so it gets you wondering if what we are seeing is some coordinated response to these growth orientated solutions to pensions? And who would benefit from the status quo where all roads lead to annuities, and in a (by regulation) low growth model.
We are our own denigrators.
The Telegraph ran another article
How fragile it would seem the retirement plans of Brits looking to draw money from their pension pots.
Market mayhem – pension panic – who says?
What is the source of this nonsense? The answer can be found in this post
The SPP has actually published “for free” a frightener for mature savers who have either got lucky with DB pensions, are getting by with their state pension or 20% down in their drawdown. Guess what the story is.
OMG, tariffs are hitting hardest on savers exposed to equities, especially diversified global equities “Britain can’t retire anymore“.
The SPP have decided that planting desperate stories of DC losers in the press will make for a responsible SPP. They list and thank
The Telegraph & Szu Ping Chan for covering, along with GB News, Sky News, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, MSN, Yahoo Finance, Financial Reporter, Birmingham Mail, PensionsAge, mallowstreet
Press panic is not good news for “pensions” or for “growth“.
If you read the SPP document and are about to be or in “drawdown“, the SPP’s advice is to beat a path to a financial adviser and pay him money to manage your pot “to navigate the fallout” – as if anyone can manage the mess tariffs make of a free market.
If you are an employer or fiduciary or the kind of saver who reads documents of this type, a bulk annuity can be arranged. If you are a journalist, I bet this kind of document is exactly what you want. If you are a consumer needing help, go talk with a financial adviser.
This six page document should be promoting a message of growth, not a call to de-risk pension pots from the next Trump.
It tells the press that there is a story here .. a bit of panic to publicise
Given the scale of the equity market falls since
early April 2025, and the fall in government bond
yields, it is possible that some DC savers may see a
reduction in potential retirement income of up to
20%. Given the speed and volatility of such moves,
those individuals may decide to delay taking their
pension where possible. This may be a sensible
step if markets are to recover in the short term but
unfortunately nobody knows if a short-term recovery
is likely. Deferring retirement means the savings pot
remains invested and has the potential to grow but
the plan value can go down as well as up.
But heh, the Society of Pension Professionals know better than to panic..
For those depending more directly on the
markets for their retirement income, such as
those in Defined Contribution schemes, it is
important not to panic, to remember that pension
investments are designed for the long-term and
are frequently subject to bumps in the road.
Whether the dotcom bubble (2000), the financial
crisis (2008), Brexit (2016), or Covid (2020), the
stock market has endured several sudden and
sizeable falls this century but recovered over
varying lengths of time.
As Jnamdoc puts it
Journalists love to receive or be planted with stories, so it gets you wondering if what we are seeing is some coordinated response to these growth orientated solutions to pensions? And who would benefit from the status quo where all roads lead to annuities, and in a (by regulation) low growth model.