Grown Ups Only Please

There you are, working in a government-backed organisation designed to encourage enterprise with a long queue of people asking you for money. Trouble is, it’s government-created, has high overheads so unless you need several £million, they won’t help. Fed up with rejecting one great deal after another because they are too small, a son of 3i (or more accurately baby-of-3i) is born, calling itself 3Cs – allegedly after three Colins who were involved in its creation.

Time flies and this month is the 10th birthday meeting hosted by solicitors Taylor Wessing. If you are in business, it helps to have the right paperwork (partnership agreements, investment agreements etc) and there is a long list of these on their website with explanations of what the various documents do. As a financial adviser, I met several former business partners whose enterprise had failed. The story was always the same: one guy did the work, the other spent the money and it was always the other guy’s fault when it went wrong.

Go on then, inspire me!

Having done more than the average amount of networking over the years, it takes something to consistently inspire and 3Cs manages to do that, being as I have oft said, my favourite networking group. Normal meeting format is 4 pitches with one of those taken by the host. Two speeches done, a short break is taken and then two more. Like many networking events, the golden hour(s) can often be before the meeting or afterwards. Recently, hosts have let us stay on at their offices after the meeting but if that option isn’t available, this continues at the nearest pub. Regular locations include: lawyers Simmons & Simmons, British Library & the business incubator unit of University College London UCL Advances.

If you need to prepare a business plan or pitch, a visit to the Business & IP Centre at the British Library is essential to see what other people are doing in your chosen sector, the size of the market and what ideas have been patented/registered already.

Crucially, 3Cs works on a pay it forward basis so anyone brazenly touting for business and who does not contribute, is quietly asked to shut up or leave. Occasionally speakers who have “been there and done it” are asked to come back to share their experiences. This being the 10th anniversary, the format is 14 previous speakers who have 6 minutes each – any one of whom would make an interesting blog on their own.

Lessons Learned

* Investors hate risk! This was almost enough to make me fall off my chair, but investors do not like surprises. This can include not asking for enough money in the first place. James Barnham was able to de-risk his NovaFlo product which stops baths overflowing, with the aid of a £40,000 grant. Once he had a working prototype, he was then able to look for proper funding.

* Investors are not romantic. Just because you and your mother would buy it, doesn’t mean anyone else will.

* Consultancy helps. Until your business can stand on its feet, how about using your skills as a consultant to help other businesses grow?

* Big companies move slowly. A small business has to grow to survive. A big company can do what it did last year and still carry on.

* Reward yourself when you get a result. Don’t penny pinch all the time. One speaker described being an entrepreneur as being a paranoid optimist

* If you are totally new, there is nothing to compare your idea against. Try copying 80 per cent and innovating 20 per cent. If someone has not done it before, there may be a good reason.

* Investors invest in the management. Good idea, poor team – likely to fail. Poor idea, good team – still potential to succeed. Good idea, good team – still a struggle.

* Try not to hang about. NovaFlo’s investors thought it would be great to go for the American market. When they tried to do this, someone had registered the name beforehand, so they had to choose a new name for that market – Flowban.

* Want to polish your business skills? Have a look at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative.

Next Meeting Tuesday 9th July 2013. Two more meetings after that for this year. Contact me if you want to pitch: george@cancerifa.com 07801 939 531

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You Learn Something Every Day

With a budget of £480 million originating from the massive Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 at the time, the largest piece of legislation to be presented in the House of Commons, one could be forgiven for trusting that all the angles had been covered. Sadly this has not been the case. Most notably perhaps was where Equitable Life’s financial weakness from having promised overgenerous guaranteed annuity rates was missed.

We have had the Treating Customers Fairly initiative and currently the Retail Distribution Review where the latter has raised the bar on adviser qualifications, leading to reduction in the numbers of financial advisers by about a quarter.

Much of the regulation relates to pensions which are for most people the largest pool of money with their name on it. Trouble is, people hate pensions mainly because of the necessity of buying an annuity. Here the rates currently are one-third of those of 10 years ago. Putting it another way, imagine your pension fund lost 2/3rds of its value.

You’re going to pay me how much?

Try and justify a pension when the rate you get might be 6 per cent per annum for a level annuity with perhaps 3-4 per cent for an escalating one, against the same 3-4 per cent which you might get from an income portfolio or non-pension investment.

The difference between the two is not in the rates. Rather it’s that with a compulsory pension annuity you kiss you capital goodbye in the once-in-a-lifetime experience, whereas with the non-pension version you keep your capital. The higher tax-free growth offered by investing via a pension does not make up for losing the whole fund.

Fortunately, this lack of flexibility has been recognised leading to the introduction of Income Drawdown which has been expanded into a second version Flexible Drawdown

So What is Income Drawdown?

To do drawdown, you take your tax-free cash and leave the rest of your pension fund invested. This means that you get investment growth and don’t have to buy an annuity where other things being equal, the rates increase as you get older. All very well as long as: the growth is positive rather than negative and is enough to cover the costs. Figures vary, but the rule of thumb is that Income Drawdown is only suitable for people with pension pots of at least £100,000.

With the average pension pot in the UK of £30,000 this excludes the vast majority of the population, so for them they have to buy an annuity, or maybe get the fund paid out under the Triviality Rules where the capital is taxed.

And the mis-selling?

Drawdown has options but one important one is lost, where I wonder how many advisers point it out. The option here is the Serious Ill-health Lump-sum payment option which allows a pension fund to be paid out in cash, if a doctor confirms that life expectancy is 12 months or less. Another case at Cancer IFA shows that the client moved most of his pension funds into drawdown sometime ago and took his tax-free cash or Pension Commencement Lump-sum, to give it its modern name. No annuity has been purchased and the funds are still invested.

But moving funds into Income Drawdown is a crystallatisation event  This means that if you have cancer for example, and less than one year to live as is the case with my client, you cannot get your fund paid out as a lump-sum. This does not appear to have been pointed out at the time his pension consolidation exercise was done and the Income Drawdown arrangement was set up. The provider’s literature does not mention it either.

Have we got another pension mis-selling scandal on our hands?

Call to Action Please

a) If you are a client whose adviser has recommended Income Drawdown, were you told about the loss of the Serious Ill-health Lump-sum payment option? Was it in the literature you were given?

b) If you are an adviser, did you point this out?

c) Providers. Does your Income Drawdown literature mention this?

Please email me directly: george@cancerifa.com

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Separating Myth from Fad

It’s Saturday and I’m in Brighton for a Yes to Life Seminar, their first outside London. The speakers are from Cancer Options, Jessica Richards and Vision of Hope Clinic and two pages of notes cover a small part of the content.

Cancer Options was started 14 years ago by Patricia Peat, a cancer nurse who felt that the person or humanity was being left out of cancer treatment. Cancer survivor Jessica refused to take the medical opinions without checking them out thoroughly herself and is the funniest lady speaker, I have heard. The Vision of Hope clinic have their own take on cancer treatment, with patients from all over the UK.

One of the more depressing aspects of my work with cancer sufferers over the years, has been the apathy and lack of interest in alternative remedies or treatment. My hero here is Dilys Gannon while my own father’s story was featured in the book Loving Medicine by Dr Rosy Thompson. Yes to Life itself has an impressive list of Key Supporters and the atmosphere at the seminar is very positive. As I arrive in good time for once, more chairs are being brought in.

Freaks of Man or Nature?

But back to my notes and a comment sticks in the mind: Sort out the water. At birth, our bodies are 90 per cent water  decreasing to about 50% as we age, so this seems a good place to start. Water filters feature in the talks too. Most worrying pollutants are oestrogens, female sex hormones from decades of taking the pill that get peed into our water and aren’t filtered out properly? Two-headed fish are mentioned here which I decide to check later. Quick research suggests that these appear to be related to mine pollution in the USA and in particular to Selenium rather than oestrogen. That’s the answer then? Big bad mining companies polluting the environment? Yes there are some mining villains sadly, but not in this case.

The two-headed fish story comes up in the Simplot phosphate mine in Idaho where selenium appears to be the culprit. Selenium is a trace element that does lots of good things - but like anything else, only in the proper amounts. Any substance can be a poison in the wrong amounts even water, but I digress.

Two-headed fish and other freaks occur in nature as we can see at any freak show or if you are feeling really brave, visit the Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons, discovered at a The Will Bureau event last year.

The full Simplot Mine story in the Idaho Statesman seems to show that the jury is out as far as pollution and two-headed fish are concerned. In the meantime, fertiliser helps soils that do not have enough phosphate, increases farm production giving us cheaper food and a higher standard of living.

The Water of Life

But should we be filtering our water? Yes if it makes you feel better, but this is where life gets complicated. First discovery is that water filtration is different to water purification – the wikipedia pages are separate. It all depends what you are going to use the water for, where it comes from and what you want to take out or add in. Remember Coca Cola’s Dasani mineral water fiasco? It was pulled off the shelves after traces of bromate a carcinogen, were found in it. Thames Water from the tap didn’t have any!

Filter your water and minerals get taken out. Look at the water filter adverts and your tea tastes better. Does it? Remove minerals and water is less hard (softer) or has less calcium and magnesium in it. Great for getting a nice lather but bad for furring up pipes in the washing machine, dish washer, central heating boiler and kettle.

But minerals are needed for good health in general, in particular for reducing heart-attacks Hard water areas have lower incidences of heart diseases than soft water areas. It’s strange how we pay twice (in our Water Rates and for filter cartridges) to have clean/pure water with minerals removed. We then pay even more at the supermarket, for bottled water which has this stuff in it naturally. The difference between the two is staggering – according to the above Dasani link, 0.03p litre for tap water and 95p litre for bottled.

What to do then? An hour of research and it’s hard to beat Vicki Bensinger – filter the domestic water but take drinking water straight from the tap!

See you in the shopping aisle.

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Thought RDR was meant to cure this?

The grandly titled Retail Distribution Review has raised the bar on qualifications for advisers, but appears to have done little for pension providers who actually hold clients’ pension benefits. While thousands of experienced advisers have left the industry and commission payments have been banned, cock-ups by insurance companies are as common as ever.

After CancerIFA’s recent case where £23,000 pension benefits was rescued from being lost forever, my next case proceeds but at less than snail’s pace due to obstacles placed by the pension providers.

First provider here is a large demutualised insurer. Authorities obtained, they send their pension data after a few days with the Ill-health declaration. This is sent to the oncologist concerned with a post paid envelope so the form can be sent back directly to the pension provider. So far, so good.

Vested Interest

With the next pension benefit, client informs me that his policy is “vested” asking what does that mean? Answer, you are drawing benefits already so CancerIFA can’t help. Nothing to be done here.

Third pension pot, information comes back with plenty of paperwork informing me that this particular policy does not have the Serious Ill-heath Lump-sum payment facility? They suggest the client takes 25 per cent tax-free cash and an enhanced annuity. Excuse me? The client has 12 months to live. The option to take a Serious Ill-heath Lump-sum payment is enshrined in legislation in particular Finance Act 2004 section 166 and its related schedule 29.

In essence, if a recognised medical practitioner confirms the medical information, the benefits can be paid out tax-free – up to any unused portion of the Lifetime Allowance. If you don’t get the last bit, pick up the phone to your financial adviser or maybe call The Pensions Advice Service – TPAS.

It’s the Legislation Stupid

The point here is that this sort of thing is not a policy feature or option, although in theory, it could be. My email of two days ago questionning this nonsense, is unanswered. This former Scottish pension provider is part of one of the largest insurance groups on the planet.

I am still trying to get the 12 month limit extended as per Battles Lost – the detail, but that’s another story.

Fourth pension pot is with an insurer that stopped writing new business over 10 years ago, who insist on the client signing a declaration that he has ceased employment. Their form is out of date, and as they are only looking after existing business, probably felt there would be no need. The old rules about having to cease employment before taking pension benefits disappeared on “A Day” or 6th April 2006. As I write, they still want the declaration signed, causing unnecessary stress for the client who is still in employment.

Makes me wonder how many people have lost out after being told this nonsense by pension providers. Any readers/advisers had similar experiences?

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Cool September

Another year rushes by and it’s time for the Annual Employee Benefits bonanza EB Live 2012 at Business Design Centre Islington. Registration completed early online and tickets/entry passes arrive in good time. With two days there is enough time to chat to people on all the stands and one loads up through the day with the usual goodies: pens/mugs/notepads/sweets, but for a change some honey, courtesy of Busy Bees Benefits

Apart from the exhibitors’ booze up in the evening, a few stands have champagne but most memorably the Scottish Widows stand has a range of single malt whiskies courtesy The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Here, there is no point having more than two tipples if one expects to achieve anything vaguely productive afterwards. The second one I try has a so-called peaty flavour which is so overpowering that bonfire flavour would be more accurate.

Exhibition finishes and a few weeks later, I am invited to the official launch of the 8th Women and Pensions Report 2012 at the House of Lords Working mainly from home these days, it is good to meet other IFAs and meet the great and good who look after pensions in Government. One of them is kind enough to give me his email address and correspondence follows. I am trying to get the period of 12 months for a Serious Ill-health Lump-sum payment extended as mentioned in I Need My Pension Now!

My proposal is written in the form of a letter to the Minister concerned pointing out that there is no danger of increasing the strain on public expenditure. Allowing people to have their pensions early in the case of terminal illness, is not going to threaten any government plans to control the spending deficit It would have a major effect on people with terminal illness, especially those with modest pension funds.

To make the government’s job easier, I even highlight the actual legislation that needs changing. I get this information after contacting three pension lawyers: one does not reply, another is busy but suggests the HMRC notes but they do not mention the relevant legislation, while the third one points out the relevant legislation is in fact, the Finance Act 2004. Within this act, it is the Lump-sum rule Section 166 and its associated schedule 29 which need amending. Having done the legwork, I naively hope that a simple amendment can be slipped into the forthcoming Budget rather than waiting till the next election in 2015.

Is Anybody there?

Time goes by and I am informed that the matter is being kicked back and forth between the Treasury and Department of Work and Pensions. Interestingly, the former can be followed on twitter but I digress. This political dimension is new to me and it is very reassuring to have a friend inside government who can keep track. But this issue is one of many and even knowing the right people is not always enough. My friend loses patience and threatens awkward questions in the House and the letter finally surfaces with a Treasury official who is responsible for pension taxation!

As the saying goes, a Boy Scout could probably have pointed out that pension taxation is not really the issue here. Said chap has it in his In Tray reminding me of that wonderful childhood game – pass the parcel. Last time I played it, I was probably still wearing my Scout (Cubs) uniform, but with more exciting goodies in store than an awkward pension letter that mentions people with cancer.

I am forwarded a copy of his reply which repeats what I have told him – conveniently ignores the fact that I did my homework before making my proposal – and that with Automatic Enrolment being the subject of the moment, this matter will be looked after 2018!

I can’t wait.

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Those were the Days

One of the most interesting clubs I ever joined was a Tax Club hosted by a large Isle of Man insurance company. Starting at 5pm, a speaker gave a detailed talk on offshore tax planning. Plenty of food, wine and beer helped make the sessions very enjoyable and when the host kicked us out at about 7pm, we carried on in a nearby pub, rather like 3Cs Community meetings - which is where the real fun started. My own clients were generally smaller than my colleagues, so they didn’t really need very clever tax planning – especially when there was an awful lot of simple stuff you could do, but that’s another story.

Listening to my colleagues was rather like watching a chess match between two grand masters – you could feel the mental activity which gave the occasions a real buzz. At the time, tax planning seemed rather like an intellectual pursuit – the brains on the Inland Revenue (as was) against the tax geniuses in the private sector. Not that HMRC doesn’t have these and some smart ones may end up with very well paid posts in the private sector – perhaps at one of the larger accountancy firms. But after about three years their contacts or knowledge (intelligence) gets out of date, but I digress.

Come 1997 and Gordon Brown is at No 11 Downing Street. The game turns “hardball” as one tax guru puts it and it is not fun anymore – a great game becomes a war.

Suitcases of Cash

Before the EU was the European Economic Community and tax avoidance was not a high priority. In the 60s and 70s a popular hobby for cautious Italians was a trip over the border to Switzerland where Lugano was very handy and suitcases of Lira were put away in a Swiss bank account for rainy day and out of sight of the taxman.

This eventually stopped, leaving one of the last places in Europe where you could do walk into a bank with a suitcase of cash being the principality of Liechtenstein – a leftover from the old Hapsburg Empire whose national anthem tune is the same as God save the Queen. Tax authorities don’t like having their noses rubbed in it, and Liechtenstein is not quite the haven that it was.

But there is still one place where you can walk into a bank with a suitcase of cash – Cyprus. This has been happening for years with a lot of the money being Russian and if the banks were open, might still continue. Thinking about this, the Cyprus banks ought to be the most profitable banks on the planet but human nature being what it is, they manage to foul it up. In this case, loans are made to Greek cousins/uncles/businesses who now can’t or won’t repay. As a borrower, your loan or mortgage is a liability – as a lender that loan or mortgage is an asset on your balance sheet. Loan goes bad, the asset disappears and a bank can disappear before your eyes.

As the saying goes, a bank is like a woman where reputation is concerned. Reputation lost, your choice of partners is rather limited and not very attractive.

Being the largest economy and largest beneficiary in the €urozone, the German banks ride to the rescue. The suggestion of a deposit tax is simple and probably the cheapest, but like any spoiled brat, it is unpopular, it’s not their fault this calamity happened and other solutions are more complicated. The Russians don’t want to help - ironically perhaps, since their money has kept the banks afloat. The toys are being thrown out of the pram and for a more detailed version of this tale of human folly, this account from the Wall Street Journal is worth reading.

Get your Own back?

As I write the Cyprus banks are closed, leading to a novel idea or maybe an old one. When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously answered Because that’s where the money is.  A robbery to get your own money out of a Cyprus bank? Might make an interesting feature film.

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You win some, you lose some

After months of trying, my quest for more flexibility in releasing pension funds for the terminally-ill hits the buffers or to be more accurate, is shunted into the sidings. With your pension and with normal life expectancy, you will usually take tax-free cash and buy an annuity giving you a guaranteed income for life. Annuity rates are low currently. According to BBC Radio 4 last week, 10 years ago a 65 year old man would have got 15 per cent, now the rate is 5 per cent, but that is not the issue here.

If you smoke for example, you may get a slightly higher (enhanced) rate. If you have a serious illness you can get an even higher (impaired life) rate. But in both cases, you are kissing the capital goodbye which is what people really hate about pensions. There is some compassion built in to the system. If you have 12 months or less to live, then a serious illness lump-sum payment can be made meaning the whole fund is paid out to the pensioner concerned. This can be used for private medical treatment, that trip of a lifetime or given away. As the saying goes, it is nicer to give with a warm hand rather than a cold one.

To get a serious illness lump-sum payment involves paperwork. This means birth and maybe marriage certificates plus the evidence of a recognised medical practitioner. Paperwork delivered, the decision whether to pay out or not on the grounds of serious ill health, rests with the pension trustees.

Pension law is based on trust law where one needs to understand the difference between a registered legal owner and a beneficial owner. When you buy a property for example, buried in the small print of the contract is the phrase “the vendor sells as beneficial owner” meaning they are selling in their own right.

Putting it another way, supposing you become a parent and generous relatives given money for the new family member. This can be put into a separate account for the bundle of joy concerned, but they obviously aren’t able to do this or manage the account. Step in parents/grandparents who can. They open the bank account for the new arrival (say, parent’s name/child’s name), but this account is different from their personal accounts. The new bank account is legally owned by the parents but they own it for the benefit of little Johnny – in legal speak, the parents are the trustees and little Johnny is the beneficiary or beneficial owner.

I’m in Charge

So back to pensions. Nobody owns their pension funds – trustees own these for us and we are the beneficiaries. Trustees have a large and very detailed job description in the form of a Trust Deed. They have absolute discretion here and will usually follow the wishes of the pensioner concerned. But in one notable case a couple of years ago, the trustees paid out the pension benefits to the beneficiaries they thought deserved the money, rather than the nominated beneficiary. Don’t know the detail here, but a likely explanation is that the pensioner concerned nominated his mistress as beneficiary while his family probably including young children were excluded.

So the trustees have absolute discretion. Fortunately for CancerIFA’s latest referral where the lady has cancer for the third time, the paperwork arrives just in time. After knowing about the case for weeks, the trustees agree to pay out only after taking professional advice which causes extra delay. The cheque is posted but only arrives on the day she dies – time from first contact to client passing on – 58 days. Overall the exercise is very worthwhile for the family concerned. Total costs to client’s family are £840 including CancerIFA’s fees but pension benefits recovered are over £20,000. Had the client not made contact, the lump-sum would have been lost – sounds unfair, but that is what the pension rules or trust deed says.

Do you know what would happen to any of your old pension benefits from previous employments? Would your family receive a penny if you died before the Scheme Pension Age? Are your Nominated Beneficiary details up to date? You might want to check or get your financial adviser to do this.

And the story of trying to change the law for more flexibility? It’s quite long, so will have its own blog.

Image details: The Total Defeat by Kazuya Akimoto

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1366 x 768 Revisited

Saturday night 9.45 pm and I am on time at the homeless shelter. The 11 guests’ beds are already made up and half of them are lying down. Very little more to be done before lights-out at 11pm and everyone seems relaxed. We catch up on the last week where I am told there is some food if I want to make myself dinner. Savoury rice and a cup of tea are welcome and all is calm. One guest asks if he can watch TV to which the answer is no. A twelfth lady guest has not turned up. She had let another guest know she would be late but I am told that admission is only between 8 and 8.30 pm – arrive any later and you are not admitted. This raises the question where will the lady sleep that night and next week’s shelter is the last one for this particular church and the whole programme, which only runs December – March. It gives Ralph McTell’s Streets of London a whole new meaning

Three of us are doing the overnight shift so it’s time to sort out who does their 2hr 40 minute stint in what order. For a change, I am excused the middle shift and given the last one meaning I get woken at 4am. While most are ready for bed, the men’s toilet floor is very wet so I spend 10 minutes mopping up, not forgetting to put out the safety sign. Ear plugs are available for sensitive sleepers, but there are no takers.

It is time for the main organiser to go home and I am thanked for what seems a modest contribution to the scheme. Much of the food is ready for breakfast in the morning, and off she goes.

Time to make the volunteers beds up too and I am given a decent air-filled mattress which does not deflate overnight. Last session left me sleeping largely on a hard floor meaning I hardly got any sleep and spent most of the next day in bed. However, a firm air mattress on top of a camp bed is not stable and I am warned of the dangers of falling out of bed – not for nothing are all the guests mattresses on the floor, it seems. Curiously, it reminds me of the Duke of Wellington’s answer when asked why he preferred sleeping on his camp bed when back at home after years of campaigning “When it’s time to turn over, it’s time to turn out!”

My call at 4am shows everyone fast asleep in the main multipurpose room and no one is snoring. This gives me time for my book. Having read Peter Atkin’s Four Laws that drive the Universe last time, it’s nice to get stuck into a thriller where Simon Conway’s A Loyal Spy is an object lesson in how to grab a reader’s attention. The first few pages cover atrocities in Sierra Leone where hundreds have their hands amputated freelancers employed by MI6 whose success is measured by the amount of ammunition used, and the transport is a helicopter manned by a better than average Ukrainian crew where the pilot never takes a drink before lunchtime. Best of all, is an inspired way to leave this world – get cremated and have the ashes rolled up into joints which are smoked by your friends.

6.30 am and dials are being turned and stuff switched on in the kitchen. For a change it’s fried eggs rather than scrambled, and the sausages and bacon go into the oven. As the beds are cleared away, breakfast dining tables plus a serving table are put out. In a rush, comes a large urn of hot water for making tea or coffee, two toasters, jam, fruit juices, milk and cornflakes but the chef is struggling with the fried eggs. The frying pan is old, warped and has lost much of its non-stickiness. Amazingly, there is no spatula either to get the eggs out of the frying pan. Unusually, I take over and with more oil, a lid and a large serving spoon, 11 eggs are quickly turned out and served with the sausages and bacon. One guy says he likes his fried eggs done with the yolk hard-cooked, but I am not in the mood for à la carte and three minutes later, all are served.

Like any catering operation the clearing up and cleaning take as long as the setting out, but all is eventually finished. Back home, I wonder how long my new book will keep me awake?

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An Enquiry

Early January and it’s a bit quiet. A short email arrives: “What happens to pension benefits if you die before taking them? Do they die with you?” The answer here is usually No, but more on this later. This develops into a string of emails where the lady’s questions are answered with links to where she can answer the issues raised herself, and it looks like no regulated advice will be needed.  The background here is cancer for the third time where she tells me she has only weeks left, with last hope being another round of chemo with only a 10 per cent chance of a cure. House moves and hospitalisation have left the relevant pieces of pension paper in boxes, so no detailed information to hand. She does not want to do the letters herself so, Can I trace her pension benefits please?

Up till now, charging has not been in my mind but mindful of how long this exercise can take, we agree on a fee with half paid up front. A list of employers and dates follows where about half look as if there might be a pension benefit. Fortunately, we do have the name of the longest employer and I get the address of the trustees. Letters of Authority are signed and returned. The lady still has capacity to sign letters and when I raise the issue of Lasting Powers of Attorney, the reply is that she still has her marbles and having trained as a solicitor for a while, understands this stuff.

A letter goes to the pension administrators who phone me a couple of days later to tell me that they have my letter. They wish to calculate a projected pension for the lady and ask me for likely life expectancy? With what I have been told, I point out that a projected benefits statement is hardly helpful and a couple of days later, a letter turns up. The trustees are prepared to make a serious ill-health lump-sum payment and give a deferred pension to her husband. Curiously, there is no CETV or Transfer value, so this is requested.

What’s it Worth?

About this time, the BR. 19 audit comes in showing that enough NI contributions have been made to earn the full Basic State Pension with a heart-warming bonus of 69p a week from Graduated Pension/S2P – payable in a couple of years time.

Days later, the CETV comes in showing a Pension Fund Value of around £70,000 but with the worrying information that death before Scheme Retirement Age (still two years away) will still give the husband the deferred pension, but no lump-sum for her - the pension benefit actually does die with her. The benefits here are in a Defined Benefit Scheme where the value of the pension is maintained by the (former) employer. These are vanishing from the private sector and are usually only found in the Public Sector these days.

This seems especially cruel as the lady will not receive any State Pension either, but is confirmed a few days later. There are now three choices:

1) Do nothing, but then most of the pension benefit will be lost

2) Transfer the whole benefit valued at £70,000. This means that the husband will lose his deferred pension, but he is not aware of it anyway and it does not worry her. Once transferred, a serious ill-health lump-sum payment can be made and the whole sum paid paid out to her. This could then be passed on now rather than as something inherited later

3) Take the Serious Ill-health Lump-sum with the deferred pension for the husband

Transfers of course involve regulated advice which CancerIFA does not do, so it’s time to pick up the phone to my former colleague who does do transfers. Given the choice, the lady would prefer a larger lump-sum than a smaller one but there is not enough time to process pension transfer. Under the circumstances, a serious ill-health lump-sum payment as first offered by the pension trustees is the only sensible option. The exercise has turned into a pension rescue mission, so it becomes a matter of getting the right pieces of paper in the right place.

This paperwork means original birth and marriage certificates and confirmation from her doctor of her health details. No birth or marriage certificates are available so new copies needed. Worth mentioning here that a copy issued by the original office still counts as an original.

In this case, four certificates are required – 3 birth and one marriage. The cheaper regional registrars are only available for events that happened in the respective county, so it’s time for the main (London) ones to provide the copies. Cost varies from £25 to £60 each depending on despatch times, and the lady requests quickest delivery. All ordered online, but the Marriage certificate takes a day longer to arrive.

The medical information takes a week longer but all pieces of paper are forwarded to the trustees, so hopefully, job done.

So what’s to be learned from this?

* Birth and marriage certificates are always needed when claiming pension benefits – ill health or otherwise.

* Not having a financial adviser can be expensive. With hindsight, it would have been better to transfer the benefits where the whole value could have been paid to the beneficiary. The lady concerned ran a successful business and had an accountant, but no financial adviser. Contact me if you want me to suggest one, or go to Find an Adviser or Unbiased  It pains me to say this as a qualified banker ACIB from what might be called the old days, but avoid the high street banks here.

* There are £billions of unclaimed pension benefits out there where The Pensions Tracing Service might help

* Do you know who your Nominated Pension Beneficiaries are? If you died tomorrow, who would get your pension benefits?

* Is your will up to date? These days, a decent will should include a Lasting Power of Attorney

If you are not going to sort the above matters out, then the result could be loss of benefits as nearly happened here, or paying someone else to do it. The tally so far is over twenty letters and phone calls, over 100 emails sent and received (I was asked to close some credit card accounts as well) and nearly 100 texts, as health considerations made voice communication impossible.

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28 days!

It’s breakfast the week after the snow, and I am having a morning cuppa with one of the guests, an Irish guy who always seems to be cheerful. 28 days what? is my reply. The homeless shelter scheme which runs from December to March closes in 28 days. What happens then? Either he gets accommodation or he literally will be on the streets.

Getting accommodation isn’t the only issue. Many are empty units with no furniture and providing even second hand furniture costs money. Access to recycling groups like Haringey Freecycle assumes you have access to the internet. A chat about this with one of the organisers and the word “resources” comes up, reminding me of a possible source. The telephone conversation was months ago and I eventually find the site. The guy remembers me and I have not forgotten his final comment about not over-promising and that their due diligence is very thorough.

Shortage of resources is for once, not the problem. One lesson that I learned years ago where fund raising for entrepreneurs was concerned (next 3Cs meeting 20th March) was that there is no shortage of money in the world. In the history of mankind, there has never been so much of the stuff slushing about the world’s financial system. It may be well hidden, but there is plenty of it – slump or no slump.

The issue is not just furniture. Funding cuts have removed a full-time paid person who should be getting people into the shelter system plus you really need one for moving them on into permanent accommodation. This means: job descriptions, business plans, budgets, office space, health & safety issues all leading to the question: How much do you need? Volunteers have families too and with a full-time job, you cannot work 24 hours a day as my friend explains. Is it worth my friend applying? Yes, the foundation guy says, so let’s see how that goes.

Over to You

Weeks have gone by and one church has done its bit, so the job of providing Saturday night accommodation has moved onto another church for the rest of the season. Rather than a purpose-built church from the nineteenth century, this church is on an industrial estate in another part of north London. Off-road parking is not a problem and we climb the iron staircase up to the first floor. Dinner has been served, some of the guests are playing table tennis and set-up volunteers are putting out the inflatable mattresses and making the beds. A table with liquid refreshment stays in the middle of the room as the tennis table is put away and bed-making completed. The room is multi-purpose and all looks new, clean and warm.

Tonight there are 9 guests, 8 guys and 1 lady and lights out is at 11pm. Two other volunteers are covering until 4am so that leaves 90 mins each until 7am when it’s lights on and breakfast reminding me of the dawn scene from the 1965 French Sc-Fi movie Alphaville.

Unusually, there is food for the troops with chicken, rice and steamed veg, but having had something beforehand I settle for finishing off some very nice and healthy homemade lentil soup. Two extra mattresses are put in an adjoining office room with loads of computer screens covered with the packing showing the screen resolution?? numbers at heading. It is lights out but no sleep, as two volunteers are chatting loudly next door which must be keeping some guests awake as well. My co-volunteer pops next door to deliver a yellow-card warning as she puts it, and it turns out I don’t have to deliver a stronger red-card request later.

The Babes are Asleep

No washing machines at the venue so no widow-Twankey duties and it’s head down until my alarm at 4am for my middle-shift. To avoid the risk of falling asleep while on watch, I sit in the room where you might say, the babes are asleep. Continuous snoring from my previously-mentioned happy friend and intermittent snoring from a couple of others. It’s still dark at 4.55am when the dawn chorus starts making me wish I could identify the birds concerned. My relief comes at 5.30am so I make myself an early morning coffee before a final nap.

Morning crew arrive and food tables are set out for cereals, coffee, tea and fruit juice. The chef starts cooking breakfast with the food having been placed ready in the fridge in the middle of the night. Sausages with onions, baked beans and scrambled egg are prepared together with a huge steaming bowl of oatmeal porridge. As the guests shower and sit down for breakfast, the bedding is put away for next week. Appetites are not huge and the lady guest does not stay for breakfast. Only one guest tries the porridge together with one volunteer, so nearly all of it is thrown away. I am on toast duty (white & brown) where all seem to eat.

28 day chappie has found a studio flat and is seeing the landlord later but only has two rings for cooking. That is twice as many as I had in my first bedsit when I left home (those were the days) but decide not to mention it.

All bedding stacked away now and it’s back in two weeks. Stepping out into the daylight, it’s Good Morning Sunday and I am back at home before 9am.

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