23 October - Maladministration?
Do you know anything about pension funds? No me neither but someone who
claims to have some knowledge suggested I dig into Bexley Council’s arrangements. He says that
pension fund administration should generally cost around 0·1% of the fund
managed. I only have his word for it but a bit of research suggests it is in
the right ball park for large pension funds.
Bexley’s Pension Fund currently stands at £1,030,000,000, a little over a
billion. That is a lot of Council Tax. If 0·1% is a reasonable fee that comes to
a nice round million, give or take.
What are they actually shelling out? Not absolutely sure. They have a contract to manage
the fund, 13 of them by the looks of things currently costing us £7,364,859·67 in fees but does that mean
anything? Maybe not. The actual amount spent appears to be £11,069,000. 1·07% or ten times
the industry norm. WTF! That’s about four and a half thousand Band D Council Tax payments
on looking after fat cats.
You can discover most of the figures for yourself by Googling Bexley Council Contracts
Register. Some came from a FOI. If I have got anything wrong Bexley Council will perhaps get back to me, but they never have in the past 16 years.