Moneytrainers - UK Money Education.

In this issue of the podcast.

Jeremy Hunt and his pension reforms. The so named Mansion House Compact what this means for your pension.

Plus, a short talk about Money, tunnels and finding your way out of one and into the light.

Money and mindset.

Sounds strange, it’s not really.

As always when you are ready to get in touch with some help for yourself then please do so using this link. Richard Smith – Money Help

Welcome to the June 2023 MoneyTrainers podcast.

In this episode.

Financial Scams – how can we avoid them, what should we do to protect ourselves!

Investing for income. What does that mean, why should we invest for income?

Links Moneyfacts.co.uk

MoneyTrainers – Dying to Know

Wow, another podcast – coming thick and fast now.

Today I am talking about feeling happier, being happier. What is it and how do we get achieve this thing called happiness?

It’s easier than you think. I think.

Enjoy.

In August of 2018 the Pensions Ombudsman upheld a complaint from a policeman after he had transferred his pension from the police scheme to scammer without the scheme carrying out adequate checks.

http://www.pensions-expert.com/Law-Regulation/Ombudsman-s-police-ruling-highlights-trustee-duty-of-care?ct=true

Now, on the face of it you could say that that was an acceptable approach from the scheme, in that a formal request submitted by the member in order to transfer benefits from one scheme to another should be processed, and that they [the scheme] should accept that request and move the funds.

Considering it further, the trustees of the scheme do have an obligation to the member in order to ensure that the funds and benefits they hold on behalf of that member, are managed correctly. And in accordance with the normal rules and regulations that go with this type of scheme. Is it fair to expect the trustees to be ‘trusted’ to make sure that any transfer made fits with this obligation? As the ombudsman ruled.

My view would be that, they do have some responsibility and a duty of care. The Pension Ombudsman agree.

https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/determinations/2018/po-12763/the-police-pension-scheme/

But we have a problem, we have a problem with bad guys and bad firms attempting to transfer money away from all kinds of pension schemes in order to defraud the members of their pensions. Despite 30 years of regulation we have seen that the bad guys continue to get away with their bad actions. Indeed Government has recently announced bans on cold calling in order to prevent some of these bad transfers, the reality is we still don’t have a proper ban in force and many more individual members of pension schemes will end up losing money.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ban-on-cold-calling-in-relation-to-pensions/ban-on-cold-calling-in-relation-to-pensions-consultation-on-regulations

There is also the issue of woefully inadequate enforcement in the event of a transfer. When these dodgy transfer businesses are finally caught, it ends up with a major paperchase which it seems few police forces are able to cope with and the attitudes towards white collar crime mean that a lot of these people [bad guys] get away with it. The National Crime Agency reports that it’s working with regulators – yet very little seems to be done – limited action.

http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/crime-threats/fraud

Project Bloom also seems to be woefully inadequate in reporting on these matters and clearly not estimating the size of the problem correctly, based on it’s own assumptions.

https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/work-and-pensions/Correspondence/Letter-from-Chief-Executive-The-Pensions-Regulator-to-the-Chair-relating-to-Project-Bloom-13-November-2017%20.pdf

In February 2017 the Pensions Regulator even called for a Safe Schemes list.

Fact is this important and no doubt expensive project has been around for a number of years and delivering very little.

I have been approached by several campaigners on this matter in recent months and the evidence is frightening, these firms are transferring pension business and committing crime on an industrial scale. This is not some backstreet firm, it’s organised and professional.

When I submitted my returns to the Pension Select committee a few months ago one of the things I suggested was that we should make the various regulators a bit more responsible for what is actually happening here. Now I know that passing the buck to pension scheme trustees or to the pension regulator may not be the right answer. That said we have a particular problem, we have a problem where lots of individuals are losing big chunks of their hard-earned pension money.

My suggestion is we consider very carefully the obligations that trustees have in order to make sure pension money is protected and that it goes to the right place if moved. We also make sure that any advice provided is, either second guessed by a third party advisor or actuary. Or indeed it is signed off or accepted by the trustee as being a legitimate transfer. So far this year we’ve seen more pension mis-selling and poor advice in relation to pension transfers – despite pressure from the regulator – nothing seems to change.

So, here goes.

The Implementation a very straightforward traffic light system – red yellow green. Would help consumers, this would follow an assessment by a third party adviser/actuary/pension transfer specialist – and would consider the receiving provider along with (potentially) other issues. The benefit of this would be to put in place  further checks on the quality of advice that is being provided but also to make the bad guys consider very carefully and understand that there is a checking process in place and they will have to deal with.

There is not an advisor in the country that should be concerned about having a third party check on their advice and to be under external scrutiny. Importantly, by transparently providing an additional check on their advice to a member of the public should make everyone feel a lot more comfortable.

The truth is, on this matter Government and law enforcement seems powerless to be able to protect individual pension scheme members from the scammers. I would suggest therefore that the industry picks up the baton and puts in place its own systems of checks and balances to ensure the individual members are protected. It has everything to gain and little to lose.

I doubt the industry will because it feels that it has enough to do – but if the pension transfer side of personal finance wants to be credible in the eyes of the public and doesn’t want to face future regulation it should act now.

Ban Commissions

The legislation is already in place, just needs extending and promoting.

Also means that members can get access to high-quality advice without having to find the costs of advice upfront.

There are many ways to deal with these issues and we know that under the current system, for some reason change will not be coming soon enough – which means there needs to be an alternative. At the moment, the industry ain’t looking that good and the bad guys are still getting away with it – so something needs to change.

In this podcast I am talking about ….

Death, dying and probate.

It covers some of the information from they Dying to Know events that we have been rolling out over recent years.

This one talks about Probate and End of Life planning.

Don’t forget, if you need to know more or you’d like to attend an event, then please get in touch.

Here is the October podcast.

No show notes – my bad. No time.

Well, that did go quick.

As we arrive in the last quarter of the year.

Markets are all over the place, politics are all over the place.

So what should we be doing, how should we respond?

As always it’s a clear as mud, but there are some answers in this issue of the podcast.

Enjoy.

We wait, we look at the options. We mull over what we should do next.

You know what’s coming next.

The fear of being seen as stupid, the fear of failing the market place means that we don’t ever act.

Simply because of your failure to actually execute. To actually put that idea out there, to actually start to

And then the idea goes off the boil. That voice in your head stops you, holds you back.

Part of this is…

Fear. Not knowing what may happen. Fear of it failing. Fear of you being a laughing stock in front of family

The other part of it is…

The story. The one we tell ourselves, we are not worthy, we are useless. The inner voice that insists

These two things stop you in your tracks. Really prevent you from making something that the world needs, from

Neither of them are real, neither of them make any sense.

You and I know that our ideas may or may not work. The market decides if they are valuable when it decides to buy.

That nothing you say or do will have an impact or change the lives of others – you decide based on nothing. On something that has been decided in your own head. Because of something you were told many years that may or may not be true.

Don’t let it.

This is really important.

You will be told, there is bad news. Nothing is working, nothing is right. Everything is a disaster.

You flick on the news, open social media. It’s all negative.

And, some of these may be true.

Fact is, for you. You can’t change a single one of them. With any of them, you can have an opinion but can do little if anything

It’s a hard life, things are difficult, nothing is working. Everything is broken.

So take a deep breath and ask yourself.

Is that true?

Is everything broken?

As I suspected. Once you really test this. The reality is somewhat different.

Where we are now in 2022 has to be the greatest time to be alive, we have access to great healthcare and health information.

You can find out about and buy everything you need from your own home. Have it delivered. Often very quickly.

Just think about all of that for the moment. 100 years ago, people were dying of the Flu. with no access to hospitals with

Everything is truly amazing. Sure some things need changing. If I was you I would start with not watching the news, not buying newspapers,

Until next time.

Welcome to the August 2022 issue of the podcast.

Another shorty for August. Everyone is busy, no one wants to spend time listening to me whilst the sun is shining. But with the markets all over the place I thought it was timely to talk about some money principles that just make sense.

No matter what the financial services industry tells you, they will never make you wealthy. Quite simply they can’t. No matter what they tell you, no matter what they recommend to you as a solution – it will never work. This is because they don’t teach you principles.

When you are ready to have me come along to your place of work and talk about some of these things, please please get in touch.

How Do You Breakout Of Poverty And Debt ? 

in 2021 it is clear that what was working thirty or forty years ago no longer is.

Those with money, with assets are seeing their asset value spiking, the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer, and that may be true but the connection between the two is not completely clear.

Crony Capitalism has changed our free markets into something that is no longer recognised as any where true capitalism. I guess in the same way as true socialism has never really been tried.

With 2021 Capitalism we have seen banks and businesses that can’t fail, and Governments feeding businesses with contracts that no business should get – with record levels of taxation (now around half of all lifetime income goes in taxes) and more and more services being provided In 1914 education ended at 12 and there was no state funded healthcare – and income tax was around 6%.

We are getting more from the system of Government but we are also paying for it. This is a choice. If we want the state to provide it has to be paid for.

Where the State can’t provide services it outsources these to companies. Many of these are guaranteed income and therefore end up as mediocre services that don’t really care.

Look at any of the utility companies and you’ll see a level of contempt for the customer that the true private sector could not afford. 

With only a handful of electricity and gas suppliers, with a similar number of water companies there is no real competition and profits are guaranteed – and levels of service to the consumer are minimum.

This is not true capitalism, just the worst bits.

The rich are getting richer because they invest companies with guaranteed income streams in fields that are not competitive. 

Meanwhile, everyone has a degree now, and employers are insisting you are at least £60k in debt before you start work and then pay below average pay – because if everyone has a degree then £60 of debt and working three years later is average.

As the population grows there is more demand for housing and jobs. As everyone is qualified at the same level there is no differentiation – and the education system is designed to work for the educators not for those being educated.  SATS are designed to make sure teachers deliver – not to test the standard of the children!

Looking forward there are only a few ways of solving the problems faced, to be a solutionist to be a bit more awkward about things. 

We are all having to be a little bit more ‘counter current thinking’ a bit more anarchist if we are going to take from the haves and get for us as havenots.

This means looking at things a bit differently.

Doing different things with our money.

Doing things differently with our skills.

Learning how to manage our money properly.

Learning how to pay less tax, or at least become more efficient with the amounts paid.

Learning how to apply leverage to our hard earned money – and that means swerving things like pensions.

Understanding how our minds work, learning the skills that are required in the market now.

Becoming a problem solver – the world has enough of these, and the bigger the problem, the higher the pay for solving it.

We are long overdue a new way of doing things, a new politics, new financial planning – new learning. A new way of doing everything.  Today is the youngest we will all be, and this is the greatest time to be alive. 

Our level of connection is at its very best and we are able to solve problems that have never been solved before. 

We know more about everything, how life is made and sustained, how to move information around the world, how to make and unmake.

Ready to get a shimmy on with this, then get in touch.