Financial Times: Value of saving via pension funds questioned
Consumers who save via a pension fund are financially worse off than if they had invested the money themselves, according to new research. High fees, opaque commissions and taxes have been criticised for putting the retirement incomes of millions of European savers at risk.
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Funds Europe: Pension funds “put retirement income at risk”
Consumers who save via pension funds are putting their retirement incomes at risk due to a combination of high fees, opaque commissions and taxes, an investor group has claimed. Brussels-based BETTER FINANCE analysed actual returns on pensions in different European countries since 2000 and said people who pay into pension funds end up worse off than if they had invested the money themselves.
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The Evidence Based Investor: A report that shames the European pensions industry
We’ve all heard the one about the stockbroker for whom the definition of asset management is to invest your money and keep on investing it until there’s nothing left. But a new report by the Brussels-based investor rights group BETTER FINANCE suggests that, for Europe’s pension savers, it’s a joke that’s rather close to the bone.
The report is called Pension Savings: The Real Return and it analyses the actual returns on pensions in different countries across the continent over the past 16 years. In a nutshell it says, shockingly, that most people who save for retirement via a pension fund are financially worse off than if they had invested the money themselves.
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FTfm: EU to investigate fees and performance of funds
The European Commission is to recommend that EU regulators investigate the
performance and fees of investment funds in a move that could pave the way for future regulation. Valdis Dombrovskis, the former Latvian prime minister who holds the financial services brief in Brussels, said in a speech last week that he will ask the European supervisory authorities to look at the transparency of long-term retail investment and pension products.
An analysis of their actual net performance and fees is needed, he said.
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