OUCH! Like many who have dared to glance at their pension statement lately, that was my reaction to the bottom line “hit” caused by recent stress in the investment markets. Add to this the increasing cost of living and you could be forgiven for a knee-jerk change of strategy when it comes to investing for your retirement. The Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), for example, has recently updated its Retirement Living Standards to reflect the fact that retirees aiming to achieve a basic standard of living have seen an 18% increase in living costs in 2022.
Pensions are, of course, long-term investments and pension savers are generally well advised not to react hastily to shocks, “seek professional advice”, and “ride out the storm”.
Wise words, but the harsh reality is that the sense of almost constant crisis in recent years is creating opportunity for scammers to feed-off our anxieties and get us to hand over our hard-earned cash for the promise of better, more immediate returns – returns that are never realised.
These scammers are agile, adjusting their techniques as market conditions change. For example, “cold calling” about pensions was banned in the UK in 2019 but in June 2022 the Pensions Regulator warned that the ban is being by-passed by scammers initially making contact from outside the UK. Scammers are increasingly targeting people aged 55 and above to get them to invest their retirement savings into scam investments and…
