OpinionMar 24 2020

Your Shout: Letters to the editor

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FCA ‘lacking in leadership’

Regarding your article on MPs looking into the regulator’s performance (‘MPs raise ‘serious concerns’ over FCA performance’, Mar 6). As an IFA, I’d say that the lack of transparency and the Financial Conduct Authority’s obvious failings when it comes to speed of action are just the tip of this iceberg.

Ineffective, incompetent and completely lacking in leadership and guidance... Oh, and massively expensive to operate. Apart from that, absolutely magnificent.

I wish these MPs well and hope that they do not allow themselves to be fobbed off with the usual whitewash.

Rick Atkins

 

Women playing catch up

I would like to make the point that women from the 1950s and 1960s are never likely to have a level playing field as far as the state pension goes.

Many of those who had children will not have had the opportunity to fulfil the number of working years required to achieve a decent pension, thus making the state pension at 60 more of a necessity for a woman, than a man. 

Having and nurturing children through early life should be important to the whole community and supported, not punished by instigating further years of working to catch up on the years that most men have not had to catch up on. 

This cannot be changed or shared with partners for this period in retrospect. 

State pension at 60 for women in some ways allowed women with children a method of catching up with men on income at retirement.

Name and address supplied

 

Unintended consequences

Regarding Darren Cooke’s article in Financial Adviser dated March 5 (‘FCA eyes value for clients’ investments’). What is interesting is, in essence, the FCA has shot itself in the foot. 

Pre-Retail Distribution Review, advisers could elect to have a smaller initial commission in exchange for trail commission, or many products, such as unit trusts, automatically paid trail commission, which was usually 0.5 per cent a year, but could be smaller, especially when recommending fixed interest funds. 

But now it is open season. RDR has created a free for all, which has basically allowed advisers to charge an ongoing fee at whatever rate the adviser sees fit or the client will tolerate – in other words, an unintended consequence of RDR. 

At least under the old commission system fees were calibrated to a great extent. 

Clive Farrell

Galleon Wealth Management

 

Government thieves

Back in 2008, my husband took early retirement. I was 55 years old at the time. Before we took this step, I asked for a pension forecast and I was told I would receive my old age pension for my 60th birthday.

That was one of the main reasons we went ahead with my husband taking early retirement. Then the inevitable happened. 

Times became hard financially. I wrote to my MP to say how wrong this was. 

What the government at the time did, as far as I and many other 50s women are concerned, was out and out theft. 

We have all paid our national insurance over the years; doing so with the promise of our pensions in retirement. 

If we had put that money into a bank over the years, and the bank said, ‘Oops, we haven’t any money to give you, we’ve spent it on other things’, that would be a criminal case. There would be a national outcry. 

I was one of the earliest pensioners at that time. No one wanted to listen, and they are still not listening. 

The government can spend millions and millions on a rail link that will only save rail passengers 20 minutes on their journey, but not pay women their rightful pension, as they were promised from the day we all started work. 

It’s an utter disgrace, and past and present governments wonder why no one believes a word they say.

Name and address supplied

 

Stricter rules for admin

I have just read your article ‘Portafina to pay out over DB transfer delay’ (Mar 6).

I am involved in the pension and retirement arena and sympathise with Portafina.

Every time I have requested scheme information, projections of benefits and cash-equivalent transfer value from the administrators of ceding schemes I inevitably have to chase them endless times over a drawn-out period.

The information is never provided in a full response; instead they tend to provide partial details and promise further details will follow, although this is rarely the case.

I had to wait over eight months to receive the requested information for one client after chasing and requesting the information several times. 

When you finally get the necessary details you are then under pressure and time constraints to act quickly so as not to miss the guarantee date for the CETV.

I feel the regulator should impose strict rules on scheme administrators to provide all information requested in a timely manner or otherwise be penalised, after all any drawn out delays risk falling short of the FCA’ s overall objective of ‘best client outcomes’.

Lewis Harmer

Lewis Harmer Financial Planing Services

 

Shared blame

While I don’t doubt there are concerns with the FCA’s performance (‘MPs raise ‘serious concerns’ over FCA performance’, Mar 6), the government perhaps should think back to launching pension freedoms in 2015 without consulting the industry or giving sufficient preparation time.

The result? Mass pension transfers undertaken by advisers holding a dated qualification that was not fit for purpose.

I hope they will take a proportion of the blame accordingly.

Name and address supplied