Give peace of mind a chance

GOSLING'S GROUSE

‘The luxury I miss most is the peace of mind I had from savings. That bit hits the nerve. Because everyday I wake up, in a panic, thinking: ‘How am I going to earn money?'" - Alexandra Penney.

Now this elderly woman may not immediately ring a bell with you, but she’s the author of an American book called The Bag Lady Papers about her life as a victim of Bernie Madoff. In the US, her book has caused a bit of controversy because being the victim of Madoff meant one thing – you were well-off. In a sense, there’s a little bit of similarity with Equitable Life. Many of the policyholders with Equitable were ‘middle England’ professionals, who had gone with Equitable because it cut out the middleman – IFAs. So when Equitable went down there was probably not a lot of sympathy, b...