ONSIDE / GUEST COMMENT
PENSION FREEDOMS:
NEVER HAS FINANCIAL ADVICE
BEEN SO IMPORTANT
John Fox is one of the UK’s foremost experts on
pensions and has closely observed the subtle shifts
and the dramatic changes to the pensions market.
As the managing director of Liberty SIPP, he knows
at first hand how the industry is changing and how
advice is more important than ever.
T
he much vaunted, publicised and misunderstood
“Pensions Freedoms” that have come into play at the
start of this tax year are the most significant changes to
the pension system since the Old Age Pension Act of 1908.
In his budget in March 2014, George Osborne not only
shocked the whole of the pension industry, but, in one
fell swoop, changed the very ethos on which pensions had
been built since 1908: “people can’t be trusted with their
pensions so restrict the access they have to them”.
This ‘old school’ view of pensions was very much raised
on the “thou shall not” approach which was backed up by
severe re