WHYTIE - BACK TO THE FUTURE part 2

Henry Tapper (aka the Pensions Plowman) uses an interesting phrase in his post about Workplace GPP's that caught my eye this morning "white elephants".

Back in 2015 I commissioned an Italian Cartoonist to draw me three generations of White Elephants, with a lead character called 'Whytie' ??

Whytie (Why To Invest Early) and several of his characters were placed into a viral video that I created in 2015 to try and help prevent a huge financial scandal from blowing up in Pensions La La Land.

Unfortunately, just a few days after starting my viral campaign and agreeing a ￡40m valuation for a M&A platform deal that would help alert millions of workers to the fact that they were being ripped off by Pension Computers that said 'No' - both Whytie and his creator were targeted by 'thugs in suits'.

Unethical legal tactics which purposefully withheld key evidence were extremely effective.

However, that wouldn't alter the fact that millions of workers were being duped into buying a product that was guaranteed not to meet their needs!

Back To The Future part 2

The FSA had predicted in May 2010, during my face to face discussions at Canary Wharf, that UKFS Firms failing to complete adequate Due Diligence on my 3PPS Framework would likely lead to financial harm.

By Q2 2014 my team and I had met with 100+ UKFS Firms and collated enough evidence to report to the FCA that their predecessors fears at the FSA had regrettably played out as they predicted.

Amongst the Firms that my Team and I had identified concerns with, were all of the big providers that Henry and his First Actuarial colleagues had awarded 4 or 5 ? ratings to.

Henry's Pensions PlayPen Platform was Employer focused, actuarially backed, and ranked Pension Providers between 1 ? and 5 ?.

Although Henry doesn't mention NEST specifically, his platform also included NEST.

NEST - a waste of taxpayer money?

My first engagements with NEST directly were with Paul Budgen via LinkedIn, who at the time was Head of Product at NEST.

I believe Paul reported to NEST's Director of Marketing and Product, Helen Dean.

The FSA's fears in 2010 were that an incorrect risk rating would be applied to my 3PPS Framework, due to it being purposefully designed around an Illiquid, Un-listed Asset Class.

Paul understood the unmet need, but both NEST's administration system, and default fund portfolio strategy, purposefully excluded illiquid assets (just as all others did in the main DC Workplace sector).

Paul offered to refer the matter to the NEST Board, yet history reflects that the decision taken was to 'Opt Out' all it's members, without so much cursory thought as to bothering with any Due Diligence.

Helen of course subsequently became the CEO and received a CBE for steering NEST's platform to become the UK's largest DC Workplace Pension platform.

NEST became the industry benchmark for 'Value for Money' (VfM) in Pensions La La Land, whilst Auto Enrolment (AE) was labelled 'a success' by the UK Government and the 'great and the good' in Pensions La La Land.

But I wasn't buying that BS as I knew better and I labelled NEST "a waste of taxpayer money" very early on in its journey to becoming the UK's biggest Workplace Pension platform.

I did this because its systems were out of date before the very first line of code was typed into a computer.

I had calculated it would likely cause serious financial harm from 2010 onwards and my concerns were not unfounded (see below).

AE Policy - the definition of Insanity

I labelled AE the definition of 'Insanity' because I had calculated it was guaranteed not to meet the needs of those Most at Risk (MaR).

In 2015 I had a heated debate with a Senior Executive from Aviva on the Pension Playpen forum because I called out DC Workplace Pensions as benefitting from 'legalised robbery'.

The 5 ? Awards being handed out like confetti, only applied to 1 in 10 workers.

For the vast majority (9 in 10) the brutal truth was 1 ? or 2 ? outcomes, which in my opinion was misleading and leading to serious financial harm for 1 in 3 MaR workers.

Pissing Off Someone Very Powerful

I was told in February 2016 by my Barrister that I had 'pissed off someone very powerful' to have been targeted using extremely unusual legal tactics.

At that point I hadn't heard of Gas Lighting or Darvo tactics, but in hindsight, as a public Whistle-blower, I wish I had ??

In November 2018 I was told by two City of London Police Intelligence Officers that in their opinion I had become a victim of known flaws in the justice system.

Since then I have been probing diligently into the unethical tactics deployed against Whistle-blowers, which thanks to the Horizon Post Office Inquiry and ITV's brilliant Mr. Bates vs the Post Office, tens of millions of us 'little people' are eyes wide open about how far powerful people will go to protect Corporations.

The True Cost of 'Low Cost' Workplace Pensions - ￡1 trn

In 2020 I wrote to the new FCA Executive and then Pension Minister Guy Opperman, about the true cost of 'low cost' platforms, that like NEST, had purposefully 'Opted Out' all members from having access to Illiquid Assets.

The Big White Elephant in Pensions La La Land was exposed as a humongous ￡600bn failure, at an estimated average of ￡60,000 financial harm per worker.

In 2022 I assessed the average data across my platform and selected 8 customer profiles which varied by 22 years in age and selected incomes across the broad range of MaR workers.

It revealed a #BlindSpotRisk for UKFS worth approximately 1.5x current salary, triggered by non-compliance with COBS19.1 expectations, which the FCA's Small Firms Unit dutifully confirmed to my COO in May 2014.

Don't shoot the messenger

There is a well known saying that the 'someone very powerful' who I 'pissed off' should have heeded before hiring thugs in suits to humiliate me in a carefully curated Kangaroo Court, with a Judge who couldn't even correctly label Assets and Liabilities, much less focus on Start Up or Employment Laws -

'Don't shoot the messenger'.

Shooting the messenger has created a ￡1 trillion problem for those in Pensions La La Land now bragging about making 'record profits' [from 'legalised robbery'].

Flat Earthers should brace for R-Day ??

My 3PPS Framework wasn't a threat, it is completely agnostic.

It is a framework carefully and purposefully designed to tackle a known unmet need in mass retail savings, which was guaranteed to grow even bigger unless tackled head on, due to the Insanity of AE Policy and #Pensionwashing preying on the apathy of 'Double Defaulters'.

It is worth noting that NEST has gone from holding 0% to a 'goal' of 35% in Illiquid Assets for their default fund, since I revealed in 2022 to the FCA Executive NEST's 'Flat Earther' platform approach will cost between 4x to 10x more in contributions to match my 3 Cohort's outcomes.

Below is a snap shot from a very detailed financial report shared with the FCA Executive in August 2022.

Whytie wanted to help avoid a ￡1 trillion problem but 'Flat Earther' thinking amongst Pensions La La Land thought it could rely upon NEST as it's Knight in Shining Armour.

Instead, I predict in 2025 the Big White Elephant and Restitution Funding will dominate discussions in Pensions La La Land.

Just Saying ??♂?

#BUOM

#RDay ??

#10MillionMaR

#ConsumerDuty

#JusticeMatters