Our mantra has long been ’straightforward advice that you can understand’. That can mean trying to simplify the many complex products and options with which the world of finance tries to befuddle its target audience. It can also mean avoiding them, and to that end we have never actively recommended either Lifetime ISAs nor their now-departed sibling, the Help to Buy ISA. Both, I have always felt, were government gimmicks paying lip-service to boosting the chances of first-time buyers to have a chance of actually buying. The take-up has been relatively small, many of those who did take them up (or their parents who organised/encouraged) didn’t properly understand their (complex) structure. And that structure meant that, if they weren’t used for the purpose intended – which, because stuff happens, many weren’t – they become poor value. ‘Normal’ cash and stocks and shares ISAs have complexities enough for most, which is why most, still, don’t have them; and we won’t bemoan the passing of the LISA, if and when.
“Pensions minister: ‘we have created saving pots, but not a pension system’”
The OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility, as opposed to the OBI, often said to be housed in No.11) said this week that pensions were one of the biggest problems to be faced by this and future governments.
