Market Place: AXA Wealth - Is it time to slash public sector pensions once and for all?

When I first started in pensions, defined benefit (final salary) pension schemes were very popular with employers and employees. Since then a combination of factors including increased longevity, regulation, legislation (particularly following the Robert Maxwell incident) and difficult investment conditions have made such schemes too cumbersome and costly for most employers to run.

The alternative, defined contribution or money purchase schemes, have never been an overly successful alternative, being again hit by the volatility of the investment market. At the same time I think that society became very much focused on spending rather than saving and the whole idea of pensions became something of a no go area for most. Click here to read the full article.