Ninth But Slipping

We’re ninth again. The same as last year. But for how long?

Mercer’s Worldwide Global Pension Index puts the UK behind Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and Chile among others, but well ahead of France, Italy, China and India.

The warning is though that with the new reforms (the Taxation of Pensions Bill was published today), we will slip down the rankings. More freedom to take a pension in various forms comes with a health warning. If savers can’t manage those savings well and spend their pension pot before they die, then they fall back on the State. It’s happened in Australia (called ‘double dipping') and could happen here.

In the name of freedom, our rankings may fall.

So much depends on good communication and advice. Osborne is enjoying positive pension headlines today with the publishing of the Pensions Bill, but if the government don’t back it up with adequate education and advice, we’ll be slipping down that table.

I Need A Picture, Any Picture....

DAY ONE:

Correspondent: ‘Hello. Is that the Incisive Media graphics department?’

Graphics Department: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘Oh. Well. Erm, a bit of a rush job. You see I have to fill two pages of the next issue of Professional Pensions, but, well, the article is only a page at the most.’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘It’s a feature. You know. One of the bits we try and fill the magazine with. When we’re a bit short of news.’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: So, can you help? I need a couple of big pictures to fill the gaps. Kind of half a page each.’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘Great. The article is on where multi-asset managers invest. So there is reference to US treasury bonds. And to emerging economies. Does that help?’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘Great. But try not to just use pretty pictures. OK?’

GD: ‘Oh.’

C: ‘I mean, avoid the Taj Mahal when you’re portraying an emerging economy. You’ve done that quite a bit.’

GD: ‘Avoid the Taj Mahal pictures. Erm. Okay. That was what I was thinking though.’

C: Well think again. We go to press tonight so I will have to trust you….’

DAY TWO

C: ‘Hello, graphics department?’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘I thought we agreed to no pretty pictures? But for the US government bonds section, you’ve used the US treasury building.’

GD: ‘Yea.’

C: ‘And for the emerging economy picture, you’ve used the Golden Temple.’

GD: ‘It’s not the Taj Mahal.’

C: ‘Well at least the article is buried in the middle of the magazine. No one will notice the awfully trite pictures.

GD: ‘Oh dear.’

C: ‘What?’

GD: ‘Er. Well…. We copied the Golden Temple onto the front cover as well…’

C: *Sigh*. ‘No one will notice….’

What is a Pension?

First written 31 May 2012

What is a pension?

The dictionary says it’s ‘a regular payment made during a person’s retirement from an investment fund to which that person or their employer has contributed during their working life’.

You could say it’s a payment later in life for work done today. Maybe a promise given for work completed. Or simply financial security. All these and more, I’m sure.

What it isn’t is a promise to continue the promise into the future at the same rate as in the past. Times are hard. Companies have cut back on pensions. Government and local authorities have to do the same. So when council workers and doctors go on strike (or threaten to) on the basis of a reduction to pension, it’s the wrong argument to pick. They still have protected pensions to this point in time and the changes in the future are still far more generous than the average private sector pension plan.

My friend in India has a pension plan. It’s called the goodwill of his children to look after him. We really don’t know how lucky we are.

Back from India... Pensions still here.... not sure about Greece....

First written 23 November 2011

....or Italy.... or Spain. Even France looks to be under pressure. I was only away in India for three weeks- but a lot is happening in the financial world. And literally the financial WORLD.

We live in a global society. What happens in one market today can shift to another the next day. The speed of financial transactions, the interconectivity around the world markets and the ability to log on anywhere at any time has created globalization. Globalization is a relatively new word and was used primarily to describe the removal of trade barriers. Increasingly it is also being used to describe the speed of travel and the increase in social media and other web technology. Globalization means we can get to everyone from everywhere. And so can the market traders. Countries such as Greece can't hide away. Every action is studied and every move responded to on the market. It is a financial world.