More Fidelity Needed On pensions

Here is a clear sign that you are old and boring: reading your pension statements.

The one in front of me from Fidelity relates to a Daily Telegraph fund that I haven’t paid into for about 20 years. Still, it is a tidy sum of money. Though a bit less tidy than it was a year ago.

My money is down 5% in the year to June, which is not that surprising in the circumstances, though the FTSE 100 is down much less than that over a similar period.

My beef is that there is no explanation of why Fidelity has lost me more than £10,000.

It’s not that I’m down, it’s that Fidelity isn’t telling me what is going on.

The statement is signed by the head of client services, so at some level it is a sales document.

It’s also a PR document, though the PR people presumably weren’t involved.

Down 5% after the year we have had doesn’t require some elaborate mea culpa, but a bit of “here is what we got wrong” seems merited.

Even a bit of, “we did a good job for you in the circumstances, here is why” would work too.

There’s a breakdown of where the money is invested – 12% is in something called the Fid Telegraph Emerging Markets Equity Index – but no news on how those individual funds have done.

This just seems a bit lacking.

When I get the semi-annual statements from FundSmith, the news is usually good.

When it isn’t, Terry Smith explains why not.

The tone is – here’s what we can’t possibly know, here is why we don’t buy shares in company x, here are your numbers.

It’s reassuring, straight forward.

Fidelity is a great business really. This isn’t its best work.