Pensions and the media have a rocky relationship. The media thrives on amazing revelations and new trends, while a quiet life and conservatism are the watchwords in pensions. So occasionally, when we in the press come across what we think is an amazing new idea, it is often bemusing to see the indifference or the lateness of response it receives in the pensions sector.
In this fashion, the M&G UK Companies’ Financing Fund (see front page) appears an amazing opportunity, but the advice I heard from an investment consultant is of extreme caution – and the comment that he is not sure pension funds should be trailblazers for such funds.
However, while conservatism does not do revolutions, it does evolve, and some pension funds are looking to break from the norm and invest with this and similar funds. However, for those that do favour revolutions, there has been quite a radical proposal for those shell-shocked by falling defined contribution pots.
Writing in the FT last week, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, writer of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, said ‘citizens’ should not depend on financial assets or fallible ‘expert’ advice for their retirement.
“We should learn not to use markets as storehouses of value: they do not harbour the certainties that normal citizens require,” he said.
Instead, he urged: “Citizens should experience anxiety about their own businesses (which they control), not their investments (which they do not control).”
