Why are we paying �1m a minute to financial services insiders?

Every minute of every working day, financial services insiders pocket around �1m of our savings and pensions.* That�s over �400m a day ��about �105bn a year. Whether our savings go up or down or stagnate, these people still take their �1m a minute (�400m a day). But we don�t get much for our �1m a minute. Our bank accounts pay little to no interest, our pension funds hardly grow and investments like unit trusts seldom deliver the mouthwatering returns trumpeted by newspaper ads, greedy financial advisers and others who are so keen to get hold of our money. But thanks to the massive amounts of our money they skim off, most financial services insiders are rich way beyond ordinary savers� wildest dreams.

If we want to get any return on our money, we must learn all the tricks financial services insiders use to make themselves wealthy at our expense. That�s why I wrote Pillaged � to try to warn people how they are being fleeced by the financial services industry and to give some ideas as to how we can ensure that more of our money stays with us rather than disappearing into the extremely deep pockets of greedy and dishonest financial services insiders.

*We have about �4trn in savings and pensions. About �500bn is in higher interest bank accounts. On the remaining �3.5bn we can pay anything from 1% to 6% a year to the people who manage our money. Overall, we pay about 3% – �105bn a year – �413m each working day � about �1m a minute.