Pension gambles - Trustees must face up to the issues

GIVEN the disastrous repercussions of the stock market crash it defies credulity that trustees of Irish pension schemes continue to put members at significant risk of further losses.

Every year since 2006, the Pensions Board has warned trustees not to over-invest in equities. Now more scathing in its censure, it emphasises that three years after the meltdown of global stock markets, the vast majority of pension schemes have not reduced their exposure to equities.

That this applies in ‘very many cases’ will fuel the anxieties of tens of thousands of people who know to their cost that the pension schemes they relied on for a modicum of comfort in the twilight years are mired in deep trouble. Yet, trustees are still going blindly down the same road that led to the catastrophic state of affairs.