Is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to the job of bailing out a major UK insurer, should the worst happen?
9. Finding a good independent financial adviser is a matter of chance
Comparing one IFA with another is difficult. Essentially, the only tools usually available are directories and word of mouth.
The FCA should shine a light on retail discretionary management performance – it is shrouded in mystery for too many consumers at present.
And why the huge disparity between retail and wholesale charging?
10. Do not let the government kill off pensioners through neglect
The UK has too few workers to finance huge pensioner needs, from the state pension to social care.
Three in 10 old people live on their own, often with poor health, needing carers.
Effective solutions to the social care crisis have been kicked into the long grass. Get a move on. Perhaps the government is trying to kill us all off, through lack of provision, before our time, to save money?
That is quite a ‘to do’ list for one Budget. Yet with a will to act, there is a way through this dense thicket of troubles.
It is up to the chancellor to lead the UK through the tangled pensions undergrowth in his Budget on 15 March.
Stephanie Hawthorne is a freelance journalist
