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Thanks for the suggestion, @Itchy I'll leave it for now, as I have a couple of other irons in the fire. I'll see how those pan out first. I'm also heading off for a short break. My wife asked me to promise that I'd go easy on smoothed AE while we're away. I gave her a vague answer!!!

@Duke of Marmalade Ouch! Shows why I'd never have made an accountant! Worth adding the following from the 2023 accounts, for clarity:

@Protocol Following @Duke of Marmalade's reply to your question as to why 0.5% won't be enough, I looked at the accounts for NEST. They have something like ten times the membership that the Irish scheme can ever hope to have. Also, while their charging system is a combination of a percent of...

I've had a quick look at the Bill. It seems from first glance that the drafters don't know how such schemes work. Another possibility, of course, is that I'm so dumb on legal matters that I've misread the intentions. That is very possible. Section 72 reads that "Subject to any fees payable...

Thanks, @Itchy I've been feeling down today, starting to fear that they'll finally succeed in burying my proposal for good. Your comment has cheered me up a bit. It would be great if you and people of like mind could do all you can to get what you nicely call "respectful analysis".

On your three questions: 1. I don't know what the purpose of the independent valuation was. I share your concerns, especially given the history of the PC's consideration of my proposal in 2021 and 2022 as recounted to Brendan in the other thread, "Why didn't some other country think about...

Thanks for that - much appreciated. As you say, the sensible approach was to engage with Brian and me throughout the evaluation. As professionals, we want to get the right outcome, not to push our point of view. I don't know why they decided against that. One of the aspects that's in danger...

Hi Brendan. In researching my reply to your question, I made an interesting discovery. Firstly, I haven't got past the covering letter by the Chair of the Pensions Authority to the Minister. That states that "... Council .. does not recommend it as the structural basis for the approved AE...

I posted the following on LinkedIn yesterday. The topic of why smoothed AE wasn't introduced in other countries previously has been puzzling me for a while. Here's what I wrote about it: The Pensions Council rejected my AE proposal despite the independent expert (that it appointed) agreeing...

Unfortunately, this misunderstanding is widespread when people haven't studied my proposal or haven't understood it. It is totally wrong. There are no characteristics of a Ponzi scheme; there is no dipping into other clients' funds. Probably the easiest way to explain why neither is true is...

You're right that total costs should be massively lower under the smoothed scheme I'm proposing. Members will get the benefit of those lower costs. There will be just one fund, which only needs to be valued once a month in order to calculate the smoothed return for everyone in the scheme...

The state is on the hook big-time with AE, no matter how the scheme is structured. The NEST scheme in the UK is "pure" DC - no guarantees, no smoothing, no nothing - yet the UK government was in the hole for a cumulative £918 million at March 2023 (including a further £110 million loss in...

The state will not have to step in (other than to pay excess costs over management charges in the early years. This applies irrespective of whether the scheme is structured as smoothed equity or on the lines proposed by DSP.) When net scheme cash flows are positive (expected for the first 30...

Your own answer to your question is on similar lines to what I'd reply. AE contributors would still capture the (smaller) ERP. There might be more of an issue for members approaching retirement to decide if they wanted to keep contributing to the AE scheme if SV (smoothed value) is much...

Yes, it's a good question, and one that Brian and I have considered. The argument is, if I understand you rightly, that if we manage to tame the volatility of equities, then it's less risky to invest in them and the equity risk premium will contract or maybe even disappear. The answer is...

Thanks for your kind words! Yes, it is disappointing, but the logic of what I'm proposing (or something on similar lines) is so compelling that it has to win through in the end. It's a pity that it's going to take so long for the powers that be to realise that, but it's OK so long as we get...

Well done, Brian! DSP seems to have gone on a solo-run with AE from the start. This is just another example of the mess they've made of it. Other posters on this forum have pointed to the ludicrousness of their plan to bypass the Revenue Commissioners for collection of contributions, whose...

HI @Loki1974 Speaking personally, the risk of Zurich going insolvent wouldn't worry me.

I know I should be able to give a definitive answer, given my background, but I think you're wrong on this @jpd It's the insurance company that invests in the funds. The individual has a policy with Zurich. That said, I don't think the OP has any reason to worry. Zurich is required by...

Thanks @Savvy for the link to the report on ARF charges. I had a quick look. At first glance, it seems to confirm what @Gordon Gekko wrote earlier, that my 1.5% estimate wasn't a million miles off for the demographic we're discussing. Its main drawback is that while it shows high, median and...