Simon Eagle on the edge of a big pig pond

This podcast aroused my attention when I was sent it by said Simon, a friend and long-time comrade in the campaign for CDC pensions. I was in a trolley queue in the Wexham corridor call so I listened to this podcast and then the  famous podcast “Ralfe-pod #133” where Nico sounds he’s spent in the company of John Ralfe.

I suspect that Nico Aspinall has been chastened by  the gentle intelligence of Simon Eagle. Simon’s firm, Willis Tower’s Watson have a lot to lose from DC having a DC master trust (Life Sight) already up to 2035 size. I suspect that he is more on Nico Aspinall’s side than the CDC pioneers who created a replica of a DB scheme (without the guarantees) in Royal Mail. This was certainly the target for Nico Aspinall’s anger in #133.

It is of course possible to operate a withered version of the whole of life plan. This is the version that starts at retirement and loses the DC proprietor only decumulation (which they never really had). This I suspect Simon, being the good corporate soul. has in mind. It’s known as Retirement (R) – CDC and has just finished its own consultation. It will be ready for the UK in 2028 which is a little too late to be a default decumulator for DC scheme’s like Lifesight.

Peace has broken out between fellow actuaries Eagle and Aspinall and it had never broken out with Darren Philp who seems to be quite at peace with the idea of getting pensions, infact he promotes Richard Smith as having invented it, which in a DC sense – Richard has.

Simon’s 67 minutes of avenue procession is very pleasant as it does not make its way into the actuarial disputes on justness. Where was for instance the discussion about smoothing relative to the more modern approach of dynamic process? Can we progress data management to the point where a scheme can be valued every day, – it’s liabilities be known its assets be known it never be in balance but for moments of coincidence?

I couldn’t quite hear the discussion creeping into the 21st century when it came to data . but DB had its zenith in the 2oth and I don’t suppose that a dynamic system of pricing, making use of the speed of data transmission, hasn’t quite made it to CDC (according to the major actuarial houses).

Indeed, the major financial institutions didn’t make it into #141 (cherish those numbers like symphonies). We have a discussion of Royal Mail’s struggle to CDC without mentioning that it was CDC (Terry Pullinger) and First Actuarial (Hilary Salt and Derek Benstead) who broached the idea. WTW and Aon took over in time because they always do but that doesn’t mean they had the idea!

That said, Simon’s remarkable resilience is supreme. No one can have had to overcome such obstacles as have been placed in Simon’s way . Simon has used numbers to express himself and now he has found ways to do it himself and very well. He know I can’t do numbers like him and maybe he can’t do words like him but I hope we will never fall out over CDC where we press in the same direction, albeit with different masters!

It is a great pleasure to hear him on this podcast. I have not heard many that captured the moment like this and when Simon is asked what his definition for VFM his answer is as mine “better outcomes”. “Than what?” I hear you ask. There is no better than DC for most people though we may find our pensions are the bigger pound for pound with CDC – rather than DB.

Like everything in the future, comparative VFM depends on what can be extracted from the CDC pot and when….But only DB can beat CDC and only then  if the world is grim.

I do recommend Simon Eagle’s Podcast 141 and not just if you’re lying on an ambulance trolley in a hospital corridor.