In 2000, around 42% of the shares on the London Stock Exchange were owned by insurance companies and pension funds; today, it is about 6%. British funds backing risk and enterprise on any scale have all but disappeared.
So G Brown changing pension tax reliefs, the govt borrowing a couple of trillion, the rules insisting that defined benefit pension plans – as they mature into paying pensions – move into gilts and out of shares, you’re now saying that all of these are a bad idea, are you?
The deliberate policy of moving pensions, especially, from funding equity to funding govt borrowing is something you now want to reverse?
Or are you so damn stupid you’re not even aware of what you’re saying?
See also the introduction of SIPPs in ’06. I suspect the shares owned by the tracker funds, tiny parts of which I and many others own within pension wrappers, are not counted in that 6%…
What TomJ says. The data tells you that American companies like Vanguard or Blackrock own lots of the UK market. But plenty of Brits invest in the FTSE via Vanguard because of their low fees.
Oh gawd. Will bloody Hutton….more clueless than Spud?
What TomJ says. As someone who actually manages SIPP portfolios I will confirm that the main equity investments are in evidence based funds and trackers. That is OEICs or Unit Trusts within SIPPs
MrVeryAngry:
What is an “evidence based fund?” I’ve never tun into the term – is it a particularly UK thing?