Round up - 9 February

Trustees emptied pension fund to gamble on property; High charges and poor annuities decimate pensions; Fund managers’ fees should be the focus of attention; Tax “reclaim” by pension funds was just a code for a subsidy

Trustees emptied pension fund to gamble on property
The Times
Pension experts were appalled last night when it was disclosed that a company pension fund had been effectively hijacked by its trustees, who sold its conventional assets, geared up the proceeds with bank debt and bet almost the whole lot on speculative property developments.

High charges and poor annuities decimate pensions, industry warns
The Daily Telegraph
The pension of a typical private sector worker would fall from £7,710 to £2,200 a year if they failed to shop around for the best annuity and waited until they were 40 to start paying into a pension, research from the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) found.

Fund managers' fees should be the focus of attention
Financial Times
There is much to support in the letters of the past week from Michael Johnson and others regarding the future of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Tax "reclaim" by pension funds was just a code for a subsidy
Financial Times
Sir, Paul Dawson provides a good summary of why occupational pension schemes have become such a problem for companies, but there is one point on which I think he is unfair.