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Move over MPF and let citizens save themselves

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Why you can trust SCMP
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Is there hope for the MPF?

SCMP headline, June 4

No, there isn't. Why beat around the bush? The Mandatory Provident Fund drains its beneficiaries of money they could better invest themselves, it overcharges them, it strangles them in red tape if they change jobs and no serious attempt to improve things has been made in all of the scheme's 12 years.

The reason there is no change, and will be none, is the same reason that the Law Reform Commission will never countenance any reform that threatens lawyers' incomes.

The people who swing the biggest weight in the MPF are the money managers. They are its architects; they designed it in their own interests; they made sure it would be very difficult to sack any of them; and they will never willingly cut their fees or do any hard work to improve returns for beneficiaries.

But, of course, when people protest about it these money managers cannot very well tell the complainants to go to the warmest place mentioned in the Bible. They have to pretend that they are listening and that reform is being considered. Please be patient.

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