Enough With The Paternalistic Bloat: Let People Manage Their Own Savings

It’s frankly astonishing how much red tape the government wraps around private savings. I spend my days wrestling with financial regulations for clients, and then I see these same officials creating labyrinthine rules for ordinary people trying to squirrel away a bit for their future. It’s insulting. We’re treated like children who can’t possibly understand compound interest or the risks involved in, say, investing in a small business versus a government bond.

My proposal is simple: radical simplification and increased individual choice. We need to cut the number of approved pension schemes by at least half, focusing on low-cost, broadly diversified index funds.