Each-way loser O dder and odder g rows the affair of the
pension funds which have done well. At Gomme Holdings (City and Suburban, last week), the fund has a surplus of more than £4 million, of which £1,200,000 will go, one way or another, to pensioners present or future — while the rest goes to the company. Now we begin to hear of funds which have been positively warned about the penalties of success. If they go on piling up surpluses — if, that is to say, the fund grows too big for its likely obligations — it may lose its recognition for tax purposes, and so lose all the exemptions which go with it. What a ludicrous choice, then, for pension fund trustees and for the investment managers they employ! If they do badly, they stand rebuked, or they would do if their members bothered to watch what was going on. If they do well' they are told to stop. No wonder so many pension fund managers stump along like a line of circus elephants, swerving neither left nor right, linked trunk to tail. As to the ten or 12 million members, it is evident that they are on an each-way loser. They should look around for a better bet.
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