Bricks and policies

Why with-profits investments should be consigned to the dustbin of history..

I’ve been off air for a while, largely due to yet more building works. Building and financial services have much in common. Both have their own language which means nothing at all to anyone who is not a member of the relevant priesthood. Both are heavily regulated, and most of the problems occur well after the sale. The difference is that with financial services, if you really have been done down there’s a chance of redress.

Anyway, the porch extension is more or less finished and very pretty it is too. When people are in and out of your house for a couple of months, you get talking. Builder Harry (not his real name) duly discovered that I was of the financial services persuasion. Next thing I know he is handing me a mortgage endowment plan update. It didn’t mean a fat lot to him, but he really did not like the red ink. A couple of quick sums (Justin’s calculators are a boon) suggested that in real terms he is likely to get back what he put in. He will not be unhappy if that is indeed the outcome, but he is 20 years into the plan and to this day he has no idea what has been happening to his cash.

When will the Government bite the bullet, rewrite the Insurance Companies Acts, and consign with profits to the dustbin of history?

Changing the subject. Last month I wrote that inflation would be bad news for those of us who had saved, and that it was probably on its way. Sure enough, Obama is printing dollars and the Euro politicians are trying to figure out how to hold the Euro together. The answer, of course, is to inflate away the debts (put another way, steal from savers) which is what our Government is going to do. Methinks however that the Germans may not go along with the plan. Good for them. Awkward for lots of others.

Read this article at http://www.candidmoney.com/articles/article174.aspx