Consultants from Manifest, a company that makes its money from voting our company shares, have come out against the merger of LGPS funds, but in favour of merging administration. Funny that, as the biggest savings from fund mergers will come from fund management charges and from advisory services. Valerie Burdett-Callen, business development manager for the public sector at Manifest said : "In my view, the case for transferring or merging local authorities administering responsibilities is strong and any minor hiccups surmountable. Investment though is a different kettle of fish." http://www.ipe.com/news/merging-lgps-claimed-to-be-impossible-for-governance-reasons_33725.php
Fund administration costs are very low compared to fund management charges, and these have been soaring over the past five years. Fund managers charge for the amount of our money they have in their accounts not on performance. So they can loose us millions of pounds in investment returns and yet still get paid millions for this. Let’s not forget that the LGPS is a pension fund whose rules are set by Parliament, so if a government thinks it is right to merge funds to save on costs it will.
Don’t let the vested interests get in the way we must look at everything, from governance to costs to save the LGPS from closure. Remember this, if the next government closes the final salary scheme down, the fund managers and their lackeys will still get paid. The LGPS must be run in our interests and our interests alone and not in those who seek to extract as much money in fees as they can
