What a great advert for the state of UK Mil leadership that people have to come to PPRuNe and EGoat for military pension advice.
actually Courtney, I suspect the MOD/RAF are in the clear on this one. Employers (as in all employers) have to be very careful to limit their pensions guidance to a functional description of the pension arrangements, how they apply, how they work etc.
They cannot give specific advice on what options you should take (for example in respect of AVCs or the like) since only a pension qualified financial adviser (as in, permitted by the FCA) can give such advice.
For example, I was recently tasked to find a suitable pension for a small company as part of the ongoing statutory auto enrollment program. No problem - I found two (neither of which was NEST, AL R
). I was then asked to compare and contrast the two and do a presentation to the employees with my recommendation. I told the MD to foxtrot oscar as I was simply not authorised to give this level of advice, and to do so would be to expose the company to deep doo doo.
In sum, if you read the literature that these big schemes dish out it is all pretty descriptive...and not at all prescriptive.