The headlines in today's Telegraph make sobering reading for those in the pension industry:
'I lost £150,000 due to Nineties pension sales frenzy.'
This refers to the mis-selling scandal of course and tracks the story of one ex-soldier who was persuaded to transfer to a personal pension from the Armed Forces Plan. Disastrous results. And with many of those poor decisions reaping a poor pension, we will be seeing more of this in the press as people reach retirement.
'Pensions' doesn't have a great reputation anyway and these stories are not going to help. Warren Buffett said 'it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.' And we are doing things differently. But history and reputation are against us.
'Pensions' doesn't have a great reputation anyway and these stories are not going to help. Warren Buffett said 'it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.' And we are doing things differently. But history and reputation are against us.
THIS WAS POSTED ON MALLOWSTREET, WHERE THE BLOG IS REPLICATED. FROM MALCOLM MCLEAN:
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right, Ralph, on two counts. There will inevitably be more cases coming out of the woodwork and it will all further tarnish the image and reputation of the "pensions industry".
If you read the on-line version of the story it is interesting to note though that, notwithstanding the shameful behaviour of these commission hungry salesmen, most of the comments from the Telegraph readers put the blame on the individual for being either naive or greedy.
Looking back I came across a 2002 BBC report in which I had expressed the hope that nothing like this would be allowed to happen again. http://tinyurl.com/l7468ga
I don't think I had any knowledge of Equitable Life at that stage.