The retirement industry charges us ridiculously high fees for pitifully low returns. It’s not okay. We can charge lower fees, get our clients higher returns, everyone’s happy, no one loses.
The retirement industry makes money from our money, even if they lose us money. They take 2%, 3%, sometimes more, of our money. Every. Single. Year. Work it out over 30 or 40 years. Is that fair? Is that reasonable? No. Reasonable is 1% - a third of what others charge.
The retirement industry charges us for its “expertise”, even though 75% of the experts have done worse than average. It’s not okay. We don’t pick stocks, we don’t guess what to buy or sell when, because we know (as well as the “experts” do) it doesn’t work. We go slow and steady because it wins the race.
The industry charges performance fees. And who judges the industry’s performance? The industry. So sometimes we pay them performance fees even when, by any decent standard, they don’t perform. It’s not okay. We don’t charge performance fees.
Don’t even start us on marketing fees.
The retirement industry hides its fees. Check your statement and see if you can figure your fees out, if it even shows fees. It probably doesn’t. And why doesn’t the industry show its fees? Because they are so high, and so complicated, that it would get your blood boiling, and rightfully so. It’s not okay. We disclose our fees because we have nothing to hide.
The industry is probably taking half of your money. Do the math. If your money grows at 6%, and you pay fees of 3%, that’s half of your growth. Compound that over 30 or 40 years and you end up with less than half of what you should. It's daylight robbery. And it’s not okay. It’s your money. You should keep most of that growth.
The industry has been doing very nicely for a very long time. Its customers have been paying the price for a very long time. If you’re a customer, you will retire probably later, and almost certainly worse off, than you should. It’s time for you to say it with us.
It’s not okay.
It's not okay: an angry manifesto
The retirement industry has been taking us for a very long, very bad ride. It’s not okay. Because the only people retiring well are the people selling us empty promises. The rest - 94% of us - will have to work longer or live poorer.
