[BITList] prudence, pensions and more

Sat Sep 14 20:04:11 BST 2013

yo JD

Thanks for the news of ian ritchie – I spoke to him when he was appointed to the SA office in korea. obviously I didn’t know he changed wives.

and talking of retiring, stolen pensions and the Ians [Ritche and Head]; the SA had a very generous non-contributory pension plan, or to be more accurate, plans. In their infinite wisdom, the SA committee [the SA was as a non-profit royal charter [1867] organisation governed by a committee composed of Lloyd’s underwriters and Insurance companies at Lloyd’s under the day-to-day management of the Secretary] set it up like this - the staff in the USA had their plan, the UK Office staff had their plan and staff in the rest of the world [the also-rans] had their plan. it amounted to 2/3 rds of the average of ones final 3 years salary, after 30 years I think it was. Depending where one was stationed we paid into the UK scheme or one could opt out. Some opted out of the UK system and relied solely on their SA pension. I don’t know what options Australians like ian ritchie had.

This was fine until it was discovered that no one had been at the helm of the also-rans plan when the stock market turned to shit around 1998-ish and a lot of the assets had been greatly reduced, in fact when all was said and done, there was little left! Around this time there was a change in the UK law concerning private pensions which said when a pension plan loses assets folks already receiving the pension have priority over those who have yet claim upon reaching retirement age! The effect was that SA pensioners already receiving the pension continued as before but about 20 or so who were due to retire were informed – we regret to inform you there is no money left for you! Some how the US staff and UK staff managed to avoid this [I think] – I suppose some one competent was at the helm of their pension ship. Although I had moved my contribution to another scheme when I left the SA [and so would get no SA pension] I was still getting the yearly summary of the plan, I counted 13 London money managers or lawyers who had their fingers in the pie and were being paid large fees for their ‘advice’! In other words they were sucking the scheme dry – and no body seemed to be concerned! This also contributed to the collapse of the plan.

The result was that a number of staff surveyors who thought they had a pot of gold in the plan [one told me his yearly statement showed about $2 million] were eventually advised it had been reduced to around $2500. 
Around the time of the collapse one of my former colleagues in Japan was contemplating retiring and had been asked by the pension administrators if he would like part of the $2m in a one-off lump sum with pension reduced accordingly or the full pension. He said he would like $1m lump sum. after a few weeks nothing arrived so he called them up and they said they were working on it but there was a hitch!
Not long after he received a letter informing him that things had suddenly turned to shit and he would not be getting a pension but they would send him the $2500! He was left high and dry because he had opted out of the UK pension – so he wasn’t even entitled to a UK pension!

The 20 or so also-rans so affected by the plan collapse eventually appealed to the EU commission and the London insurance market, but just as the ‘stolen pensioners’ in Australia pleas fell on stony ground so did their cries for help.

If ian head and ian ritchie had not played the cards prudently – they may well have ended up with nothing! There are always people worse off than you!

I note your comments on the present situation in hong kong, it is astonishing that the Chinese in Beijing didn’t go nuts and toss all the foreign devils out thus causing chaos and the rapid collapse of hong kong as we know it. They were clever enough to know they had the brightest star in the sky already. 
Sounds a great place, I used to buy all my stuff there  – ‘twas there I first flew in a helicopter. I was staying at my usual hotel - the Madarin [borrowed one of their coat hangers. Actually I have quite a collection of international coat hangers , not forgetting BI and P & O] and was flying off to some where; they had a white RR to the helipad then by chopper across the harbour to Kai-Tak, really weird feeling it was. 

Since then I have flown hundreds of time by chopper.

Agree NZ doing great with the yachts in the Luis Vuitton Cup – tough crowd.

Colin t

PS  Note your small laptop still giving your problems –how old is it?

PPS    The green King’s Scout ‘cords’ are usually know as aiguillettes, they can be worn on the left or right shoulder depending on who is giving the orders! 

PPPS        Google translate does not know.. HABBI AMRA SOGEAR JAHTA 

Colin t

From: John Davison 
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 8:49 AM
To: x50type at cox.net 
Subject: MORE ON KS AND SA !

I SAILED WITH IAN RITCHIE ON ASIA FIR , TA HING HK , NOTORIOUS EDDIE WONG OWNER , I WAS C/O IAN CE/O , NICE GUY ANW WE WERE FRINDS IN SPORE WHEN I WAS THERE AND IAN IN HK , THEN I IN HK , FIRST WIFE BO BO SMALL SHANGHIESE !! THEY HAD 2 CHILDREN BOY AND GIRL , 
IAN WENT TO SEOUL , DONT KNOW THAT HAPPENED BUT THEY DIVORCED , I HEARD IAN BECAME HAPPPILY MARIED WITH HIS KOREAN WIFE , WHEN HE RETIRED FROM SA , THE KOREANS ASKED HIM TO REMAIN WHICH HE DID , 2004 BI REUNION IN FREMANTLE I TRIED TO TRACE HIM , NO SUCCESS .

IAN HEAD I DID SOME EXTENSIVE WORK IN SPORE WHEN OUR SHIP RUTH  EVERETT CAUGHT FIRE , NEAR HORBURGH LOGHT HOUSE SOUTH CHINA SEA , THE EFFING CREW ABANDONED HER , THE AFFAIR WAS A DISASTER , MASTER AND CREW COMPLETELY AT FAULT , I MNAGED TO GET THE SHIP TOWED AND ANCHORED IN SPORE WATERS AND GOT THE FIRE OUT HENCE LOTS PF WORK WITH IAN ??? IT TURNED PUT IAN KNEW A GREAT PAL OF MINE , ONE PHIL THOMAS , PERHAPS WHEN PHIL WAS A PILOT IN MOMBASA OR PNG , IAN TOLD ME PHIL H=HAD GOT IN TROUBLE WITHT THE LAW AS HE LEFT HIS WIFE AND ABSCONDED IF THAT IS THE WORD WITH THEIR SON ??

WONDER IF YOU HAVE EVER HEARD OF THIS .

ITS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL 

HABBI AMRA SOGEAR JAHTA !!.OR JOW 

JOHN
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