by Louise Sutherland
Earlier this year I was offered to join my company’s Standard Life pension scheme. I had an appointment with the pension advisor, and I decided to talk to him about the ethics of Standard Life. He was a personable chap, and spun me a long spiel about the benefits of pensions, and did lots of calculations showing what a huge lump sum and payments I would be receive. Finally it was my time to talk, I asked what kinds of things they invested in? He told me about three kinds of investments; ‘high risk’ - for example in the Middle East, ‘medium risk’ – which were quite secure and profitable and ‘low risk’ – which earned less but were very safe investments. I could see he wasn’t thinking along the same lines as I was, so I interrupted, “What ethical investments do you offer?” He smiled knowingly, “Yes, of course we have an ethical scheme you can pay into, it may earn less, but you can pay into that.”
This sounded promising. We talked about it, but as we looked at the figures I realised that the money my employers and I paid into it would be invested ethically, but the money earned would not be invested ethically. Instead it would go into the company itself, and would therefore still finance industries I abhor. I explained to the pension advisor that I wouldn’t be joining and that I wasn’t prepared to put money into a company which used its finances to support industries which I am opposed to – even if some small sector of the company was investing ethically.
He was surprised, he again showed me the figures of what I could earn. I explained I didn’t want money earned from those industries. He was surprised, “How far can you take your ethics?” he asked, “Everything is unethical if you really look at it. You have to be practical.” I assured him I was being extremely practical in not investing in damaging industries. I asked him if any pension companies were entirely ethical investors – not just having one ethical scheme within many none-ethical schemes. “No, no companies operate like that” he assured me. Fortunately however, I did not believe him and decided to investigate myself. What I found was quite heart warming!
I found this website the ‘Ethical Investors Group’ : http://www.ethicalinvestors.co.uk/index.htm
They have various sections on different financial things. For information on ethical pensions, check http://www.ethicalinvestors.co.uk/pensionssite/index.htm.
They advertise themselves as providing a specialist financial advice service to “those who care about the world and its preservation, and wish to extend this philosophy to all areas of their lives.” They provide independent financial advice to individuals, charities, groups and companies. They will not advise on anything other than socially or environmentally screened investments and in the Guardian's "The Giving List", Ethical Investors Group headed the list of UK companies, donating the highest percentage of pre-tax profits of any UK company.
I contacted them via their website to ask for pension information, I completed an online application and three days later received a free comprehensive pack with more information about the choices of companies available, their ethics, what they invest in and what payment plans I could join. Also the more I learnt, I realised that your company is obliged to pay into the pension scheme of your choice – you don’t have to join the company scheme or get nothing.
I have found the Ethical Investors website to be very helpful, and if you have a pension and don’t want to fund the arms trade, factory farming or anything else you abhor – contact them – find out what you are paying for and then do something about it. Talk to your manager, the company you pay into and change it. Be sure about what your money is supporting; it is easier than you think.
Pensions update ...
30 July 2007
Campaign group FairPensions have launched an online facility that will allow pension holders to ask their pension fund to challenge corporate abuse. The online scheme means you can find out how your pension scheme is being used and what it is funding.
See www.fairpensions.org.uk/act_now/email.htm for more information or call 020 7403 7800.
