Some of the negative reaction to the chancellor’s proposed pension reforms is depressing but unsurprising (Report, July 11).
Pension trustees should be willing to embrace positive changes that continue to protect the primacy of members’ interests, while enabling greater diversity in investment strategies, particularly if this brings significant potential benefits to the wider economy. After all, as trustees we are responsible for investing some £2.5tn — more than all foreign direct investment into the UK in 2021.
It’s almost as though some pension trustees are unable or unwilling to accept that things can be improved, or are too frightened to challenge the accepted orthodoxy.
Rather than looking for reasons to reject reform, we should be working to ensure that changes deliver more positive outcomes for our members, their retirement savings, the businesses they own and the UK economy in general. Trustees need to be telling advisers what to do, rather than the other way around.
Rory Murphy
Chair of Trustees
Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund
West Sussex, UK