How serving rum to George Michael led to a pensions career

The 19-year-old bartender says hearing those soft chords and quiet lyrics from one of the UK's most famous stars was "magical" as a hush fell gently over the small bar area in the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth, back in 1987.

Brown, who is now group director of policy and external affairs at People’s Partnership (formerly B&CE), says: "I was working behind the bar, mixing cocktails. I made one for George Michael – it was a rum concoction – probably a mojito but it was 35 years ago so I can’t be 100 per cent sure.

“He was a lovely, friendly guy, who was at the height of his fame – he was promoting his Faith album and, after being asked about the song by fellow star Terence Trent D’Arby [now called Sananda Francesco Maitreya], who was also in the bar, he started playing the song.

"There weren’t many of us there at the time but those of us who were just sat in silence and listened to him play. It was an incredible moment in time, not to mention a real privilege. Working in hospitality didn’t get any better than that.”

But this did not inspire Brown to head down to Stock, Aitken and Waterman's offices and sign up for a contract as a soloist, although he was itching to do something different.

"Not long after that moment in the Royal Bath Hotel bar, I decided that I wanted to do something new, so I went for an interview for a job in the team that recruited and trained financial advisers at Teachers Assurance in Bournemouth," he says.

Within a matter of months, in 1988, Brown had achieved his financial planning certificate and "there really was no looking back after that".

He says: "The late 1980s was a great time to start in financial services – it was not only lots of fun, but I also witnessed the introduction of statutory regulation.”

Remembering rules

Not many people would think statutory regulation is fun but Brown, who once partnered with Chad the Party Eagle (pictured, below) on several financial blogs, is not like many people.

In fact, he enjoys remembering pension rules and gets excited when asked about them.

"At Teachers, I soon discovered that I had an aptitude for remembering pension rules – something that has served me very well for nearly four decades. It wasn’t long before I was promoted to the role of pensions trainer at the age of 23.

"I seem to remember that I was the youngest person to have held that role at that time," Brown muses.

FTAdviser asked Brown what have been the biggest concerns and challenges the pensions industry has faced in all the years that he has worked in pensions.

He is unequivocal in his response: "The introduction of personal pensions and the removal of the employers’ right to make pensions a condition of service was a watershed moment for the industry; one that didn’t go well. 

"Too many people left their workplace pensions for personal pensions for the wrong reasons. This of course led to the first pension mis-selling review, which was launched in 1994, and, ultimately, negatively impacted the reputation of the industry.

"I had hoped that the industry would have learned valuable lessons but, following the British Steel scandal, I remain to be convinced that everybody did learn lessons.”

In fact, he remembers three significant pension mis-selling scandals; memories no doubt seared onto his mind after his time working for the then Financial Services Authority between 2000 and 2002, when a lot of the pension mis-selling scandals of the 1990s were being unravelled.

Auto-enrolment has had a significant and positive impact on the market, but I would like to see it improved.Phil Brown, People's Partnership

But has anything gone right? 

Brown highlights a few things, but says more is needed:

• We removed the right of employers to make people join as a condition of service in the late 1980s, and then in 2012 the government reintroduced this right via auto-enrolment.
• Regulations changed significantly for personal pensions – we have had at least four different regulators and, for workplace schemes, we have had two.
• Pension simplification was also a huge moment that got lost, as we have spent recent years making pensions more complicated.

Changes for the better

Brown says if he could change policy or implement new regulations to make things better, there would be a host of improvements he would like to make.

He says: "Auto-enrolment has had a significant and positive impact on the market, but I would like to see it improved. We should start with the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review being implemented, once we are through the cost of living crisis.

"Beyond that, I would like to see better demarcation lines between workplace and retail schemes, which, in my view, would prevent regulatory arbitrage that ultimately leads to poor decision-making where the workplace member carries the risk.

“When the value for money metrics are defined for the whole market, they must be available and accessible to consumers at the earliest opportunity.”

But with 2023 shaping up to be another tough year, with pre-Brexit regulation starting to be unravelled against a backdrop of financial and political uncertainty across the globe, what does Brown think advisers need to watch out for this year? 

Brown says: "The Department for Work and Pensions has already signalled its intention to publish new value for money metrics, which we expect to see early in the New Year.

"This may change how defined contribution schemes and products are judged, initially by pension professionals but ultimately by consumers."

He adds: "The much-anticipated response from the DWP on its consultation about decumulation in DC pensions should be a beneficial one. It has the potential to lay out a clearer pathway for supporting savers towards the best use of their pension pot.

“We expect the conversation about schemes investing in less liquid assets to continue throughout 2023, especially after the Productive Finance Working Group published its guides to the issue in November.

I would like to see better demarcation lines between workplace and retail schemes.Phil Brown

“The DWP has also indicated that it will consult on extending collective defined contributions to multi-employer schemes.”

Already it is looking like it will be an exceptionally busy year for pensions. Is Brown concerned?

Given that he has been a member of HM Treasury FinTech Delivery Panel and HM Treasury InsureTech Board, as well as a founding member of the Pension Income Choices Association, it is fair to say he will love the challenge. 

After all, he really, really loves pensions.

Simoney Kyriakou is editor of FTAdviser