At 162 slides, the FCA’s Financial Lives survey of the nation’s understanding of private pensions is a phenomenal publication. It’s the document that was mainly researched this time last year from ordinary people, not those put forward by insurers, advisers or pension companies. Consequently it gives the answers to the questions given without commercial bias, these are not the results that we wanted but they are the financial state of the nation- when it comes to saving for later life.

It is a world of two halves. we are at the point where the generation that started work in the 1980s are reaching retirement – whether you define that at reaching state pension age (66) or approaching it. I started work after university in 1983 and will get my state pension in 2028. I can answer most of the questions positively as I do know what is happening to my finances and hope that by 2028 there will be pensions for those, like me, with pots.

The slides take us through 7 sections , indicating the way the FCA think of pensions from the consumer’s point of view. It is work that I hope will be digested in Caxton Street and in Brighton by the DWP and TPR as it talks of what is going on beyond the conversations being had with providers, trustees and employers. It is good stuff and I will be responding as section 8 asks of me and referring to the glossary in section 9 to work out acronyms. DK means “don’t know” by the way!

Let me lay out the sections as they arise

It quickly becomes obvious from the interviews with several thousand citizens that there are big differences between what young and old are holding and a lot of DK.

Here we get to what is falling under the regulatory auspice of the FCA, the pot and it hits the hard question of “retirees income sources”. It is clear that prevalent as DC pension pots are , there is no clear source of income from them.

Clearly there is a part of the population who can give answers to these question but that DK is much more common than an “engage” population should have, the gap between certainty amongst the DKs on matters listed below will be alarming to those who care (me included)

I have started including pages where the sections start so you can see that this section is 40 slides long

This is a complicated section as it asks questions about decisions where ideas like “advice”, “guidance” , “satisfaction” and “pension” are based upon a very different understanding of the word. It demonstrates the chaos that surrounds the drawing of money out of pension pots.

This is in line with the FCA’s way of using competition as a means of the effectiveness of “the market”. But of course DC pensions are not working like that, for those who have engagement the section is relevant , but for the bulk of the population, the pension is what comes the other end of the pipe. There are problems with too many pipes when you get to the end of work but encashment of small pots is simple enough.

Chaos is avoided by selling the unwanted pension pots back to the provider for cash in the bank. If savvy, pots can be sold to other providers and money kept in one pot. But the bigger problems about how to convert pot to pensions are not yet an issue to all but the minority who are engaged. In consequence, issues about choice are second order.

There aren’t many problems or complaints overall. People have no expectation of what good or bad means, there is no benchmark, your DC pension(s) are what you have and what you get in decumulation is money. In as much as the money comes as expected, administration is not a problem, whether it is giving value for money – who can tell.

Let us not be surprised if this Financial Services Survey is not read by more than a handful of consumerists. If you are in the game for funds under management , profit from insurance or administration fees then a lot of this is to be shunted off to the Money and Pension Service. If you are a fiduciary of a DC pension (IGC, Trustee or provider) then there is nothing in this monster of a report to disturb you now.

There are more people reaching state retirement age , more reaching 55, more determining there own critical dates for “decumulating” but there is no evidence that there is a retirement plan from private pensions for those who aren’t advised or self confident.

If I was in Government , I would either be kicking the problem down the road or doing something. There has been very little progress since freedoms were announced in 2014 and implemented only a year later. Ten years on we are seeing the chaos they have caused, are causing and will cause.

The FCA have done what no other organisation could do and provided us with this pension service that is proper and instructive. It will either be ignored or – if read – acted upon. I hope it is being taken into consideration by the DWP and by our Pension Minister so that the default position returns to being a pension. For right now it is anything but – which is shy of the point of having “private pensions”.