Is it time to review your pension-fund arrangements?
Even though the UK pension sector is going through something of a transformation it appears that more and more people will need to make their own pension arrangements in the future. Today's announcement that 1.85 million people in the UK are aged 85 years or more is great news but will ultimately speed up the timescale towards personal pension arrangements becoming vital in the future.
As we have covered on numerous occasions, the UK state pension has been falling in value in real terms for many years as state pension liabilities continue to increase and funding becomes more of an issue. There is also concern that as EU member states become far more entwined in each other's financial status and financial liabilities, countries such as the UK could be forced to take on excessive liabilities in countries such as Italy where their state pension system is literally on the verge of collapse.
While there are obvious benefits of closer co-operation in Europe, ultimately as a means of tackling the trade dominance of the US, there will be various liabilities to clear up with pension arrangements top of the list. How would the UK government be able to part fund pension liabilities for other EU members when its own situation is running out of control?
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