I am sure he is a very nice guy and I wish him no ill but for example his ‘Pensions Time Bomb’ is riddled with errors and frankly does not endear confidence.

Where do I start.

Sainsbury DB fund is in surplus
BAE DB deficit is 3.1Bn not £13.4 Bn with commitment to reduce by extra funding
RSA DB fund is in surplus
The BT fund which does have a large deficit is effectively government guaranteed as when BT was privatised the UK government gave a commitment to make good any pensions should BT ever fail.

He states ‘ if these companies had to legally honour their pension liabilities they would be bankrupt’. That is categorically untrue and potentially libellous.

He has no appreciation that the low yielding bonds he talks about were bought at much lower prices and so produce a significantly higher income stream. Bond yield and price are inversely related. Also many of thes bonds are index linked so their income stream increases over time. I can go on.....

DB pensions are hugely valuable. The default in the UK is that a DB pension should only now be transferred in extreme conditions. (Chronic Ill health or possibly acute financial problems). Otherwise they should not be touched.

These guys sell insurance products. As stated in their small print. They are not IFA’s as recognised in the UK. Very misleading. The I in the name stands for International not Independent.

I am sure the guy is very nice and I’m sure that it’s hard for him to make a living. I am definitely not getting at him personally though it may seem like that and I do admire his effort and work effort. I am sure he would do well and be better suited at a more transparent company. That’s all.