It’s thirty years now since Robert Maxwell fell off his yacht, and it was discovered that he’d been plundering his employees’ pension funds. No doubt that ghastly Bryan Adams song from Robin Hood was still number one, as it was for most of that year. My jaw did, therefore, drop somewhat to discover that, after all this time, the regulator has decided that a new ‘pensions dishonesty unit’ is needed. A lot’s been done since Maxwell to compensate those who might otherwise lose their pensions when schemes go bust or are underfunded; but, it would seem, not enough, if anything, to catch those who may be causing those schemes to go under.
“Letter of authority: Why now is the right time for change”
This may sound like a non-issue from outside the world-of-financial-advice bubble. It is the bain, however, of the daily working lives of many of us, particularly of those paid by we advisers to do the dirty work of dealing with the many providers with whom we have to work.