Today’s guest commentator is Lucian Camp, Lucian Camp Consulting. The following views are his personal views and not necessarily those of The Platforum. Thanks to Lucian for his contribution.

Some years ago, I saw a piece of consumer market research looking into the strength of the Virgin brand across a range of different financial services markets.

Generally it came out very well, but there was one notable exception. Younger respondents, in particular, were distinctly dubious about the idea of a Virgin pension.

The researchers dug a little deeper, and found a single and simple reason: younger respondents calculated that by the time they came to retire, the Bearded One would be long gone (either sold out or disappeared in a hot-air-ballooning mystery) and they could have no confidence in what would happen to the Virgin brand, the Virgin business or, more importantly, their own Virgin pension after that.

As well as casting an interesting light on the inextricably-intertwined relationship between the Branson and Virgin brands, the research told me something of broader significance: Pensions Are Different. The way consumers see it (especially younger consumers), pensions represent by far the longest-lasting of all financial services commitments. And that length of time, of itself, presents some special and distinctive risks – some of which can be managed, at least in part, by choosing stable, long-lasting, substantial companies to provide them.

I was thinking about this the other day while reading the speech that Brett Williams gave at the Cofunds annual dinner a few months ago. Brett said: “We should be aiming to transform savings and investments like iTunes transformed the music industry. You don’t have to buy the album any more, so why buy a big brand pension product? Cofunds wants its platform to help the UK advice profession effect a revolutionary shift away from big-brand institutions.”

From the point of view of the UK advice profession, Brett’s comments make perfect sense. But from the point of view of the UK pension saver, especially the younger and more risk-averse one (and, no question, there are plenty of those), I’m not so sure.

After much arduous and exhausting toil, my admirable IFA has recently succeeded in restructuring my own formerly-ramshackle pension arrangements. Previously, the biggest chunk of money was with Sun Life, or rather AXA Sun Life as they’ve been now for many years. Now, all the money is held on a platform I’ve never heard of, within a SIPP wrapper from a provider I’ve never heard of, and in a portfolio of passive funds run by a fund manager I’ve never heard of. I’m sure this is all good, but I can’t deny that I’m going to miss those incomprehensible annual statements with that big familiar smiling sun logo on them.

Far be it from me to take issue with an industry leader of Brett’s calibre (although actually I think he quite enjoys it when I do). But I do think it’s important to make sure, in our bold and progressive efforts to reshape our industry, that we don’t accidentally forget about the interests and perspectives of the people we’re doing it all for. For most, when it comes to really serious, mission-critical, can’t-afford-to-get-it-wrong, long-term financial decisions, even in these distrustful times the reassurance of a big, established brand still counts for something.

Lucian Camp, Lucian Camp Consulting