Assessing the risks

In last week's issue of Investment Week, we looked at some of the financial issues for people who are considering contracting out the State earnings-related pension scheme (Serps). We concluded that, based on historical returns, those who contract out appear to have a very good chance of gaining substantially, but that this is a significant risk that some policyholder will not be willing to take. However, the contracting-out decision does not depend just on these purely numerical issues. In this article, we will consider some of the other factors that may be relevant for clients, then draw...