Pensions.
One of those items on a long list of things that we all think about at some point, but then do nothing about...
However it seems that more than a few canny company directors are taking care of their future by securing extra big pensions!
The bosses of Britain's top 100 companies have amassed pensions worth £891m, according to a report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
The TUC study looked at members of the FTSE 100 index of the UK's 100 largest listed companies and other big employers The findings revealed that average company executive can now retire at 60 on a final salary pension worth more than £3 million!
Put simply this works out at a very tidy £193,000 a year; more than 25 times the average UK pension of £7,500 a year!
Named amongst the TUC's list of "super rich" directors were Compass Group boss Sir Francis Mackay, National Grid's Roger Urwin and Vodafone director Sir Julian Horn-Smith.
The former BP chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, who topped the recent Guardian pay survey with a pension pot of £21m, will receive an annual pension of more than £1m despite leaving the company under a cloud earlier this year. How did he manage that eh?
The biggest executive pensions are now worth £320,000 a year, more than 42 times the average staff pensions, the annual TUC PensionsWatch survey alleges!
Over the last year, directors' pensions have increased 15%, the TUC adds and naturally the kind of figures already mentioned, have angered union leaders who said senior executives had left most of their workers to rely on cheap pensions based on stock market returns while they maintained expensive guaranteed final salary schemes for themselves!
The report said that nearly 80% of directors still have final salary pension schemes even though almost two thirds of firms have closed such schemes to new staff in recent years!
Directors in final salary schemes enjoy accelerated benefits that allow them to acquire their pension rights in half the time taken for workers in the same schemes!
Look at it this way; most staff in final salary schemes need to work for 40 years to gain their full pension compared to 20 years for directors!!
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber was scathing in his assessment of the report:
"Top executive pay has already created a new group of the super-rich who float free from the rest of society," he said "This report shows that this does not stop with their retirement. Too many top directors have gone on closing or cutting schemes for their workforce, while keeping gold-plated pensions for themselves."
Mr Barber said executive pensions allowed senior staff to retire at 60 when most staff were being forced to stay on till 65.
John Cridland, deputy director-general of the CBI, defended the pension payouts for directors: "These days, successful company directors are in demand around the world, so while big number salaries and pensions might feel uncomfortable or unfair to some, cutting ourselves off from the global talent market or taxing high fliers out of existence would harm the UK's economy at no benefit to ordinary workers."
So are company directors worth their pension funds after their long years of dedicated service?
Or are they just getting away with a life of luxury at the expense of their fellow workers!
What do you think?
How much would make you happy?
Happy at work?