The regulation of pension funds, and their protection against looting, will remain a challenge.
For most people over forty-five in developed countries, their stake in a pension fund is one of their largest single assets. During the nineteenth century, the biggest financial need of common people was for life insurance to protect their families in the event of their early death. With life expectancies now almost double those of the nineteenth century, the biggest need of common people today is protection against the threat of living too long. The nineteenth-century “life insurance” was really “death insurance.” The pension fund is “old-age” insurance. It is an essential institution in a society in which most people can expect to outlive their working lives by many years.
The regulation of pension funds, and their protection against looting, will remain a challenge to policy makers and lawmakers for years to come. In all likelihood, the challenge will only be met after we have had a few nasty scandals.
ACTION POINT: What are the weaknesses of the current regulations of your pension fund?
Post-Capitalist Society
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker