By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning
“They call it growth. We call it extraction.”
The Mansion House Accord is being hailed as a visionary step towards unlocking investment in the UK’s future. In reality, it’s a familiar game repackaged. We’ve seen this before in financial advice—now it’s the government’s turn to get a slice of the pie.
Seventeen of the UK’s largest pension providers have pledged to allocate at least 10% of their workplace pension default funds into private markets by 2030. It’s pitched as a patriotic push to invest in Britain’s future. But scratch beneath the surface and it’s clear: this isn’t about savers—it’s about siphoning assets under the guise of economic stimulation.
The Mansion House Mandate: A False Promise
For years, the financial services industry has operated under an Assets Under Management (AUM) model—charging ongoing fees for assets “managed,” regardless of outcomes. It’s a model that feeds the City and starves consumers of value. Now, under the Mansion House banner, this same model is being scaled nationally. Only this time, the government is playing gatekeeper.
The new push for private markets is riddled with opacity:
- Limited liquidity.
- Higher charges.
- Poor transparency.
- Complex valuations.
And most troubling of all, no proven uplift in client outcomes.
Even some of the UK’s largest pension providers—Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Scottish Widows—refused to sign the Accord. Why? Because they knew that locking savers into opaque, illiquid investments isn’t good practice. It’s politics dressed as progress.
Advisers: From Fiduciary to Foot Soldier?
Under the Consumer Duty, advisers are required to act in the best interests of their clients. But now there’s subtle pressure to become the delivery mechanism for a national economic strategy, propping up underfunded infrastructure through savers’ pensions.
This isn’t empowerment. It’s exploitation—just under a new banner.
Private markets may be lauded as “innovative” and “transformational,” but most remain inaccessible, high-cost, and unsuitable for everyday investors. The idea that we should shoehorn them into default DC pensions raises red flags not just for suitability—but for ethics.
What’s Really Growing?
This isn’t a strategy to grow individual wealth. It’s a strategy to grow institutional control over our savings. It represents a subtle but seismic shift—from pensions being a safeguard for the individual, to being a capital pool for the state and City alike.
Advisers, trustees, platforms—they’re being nudged to fall in line. But it’s the everyday saver, worker, and retiree who will be left exposed if markets turn, liquidity dries up, or returns fail to materialise.
From Growth to Empowerment
We don’t need a Growth Agenda. We need an Empowerment Agenda.
One that focuses on:
- Transparent, liquid, and cost-effective investments
- Holistic life planning that aligns financial capital with human capital
- Savers having control and clarity—not complexity and confusion
- Ethical advice models, free from conflicted remuneration and political agendas
It’s time we stopped selling our future for a short-term illusion of growth.
If you’re a financial planner tired of being pressured to act against your values, there is another way.
At the Academy of Life Planning, we help you build a business that empowers, not extracts.
👉 Learn more: http://www.aolp.co.uk
Join the M-POWER Movement: From Financial Extraction to Personal Liberation
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