I agree with a contributor to a discussion:

"The slogan 'informed choice' is a reasonable one, and many consumers are prepared to invest effort in coming to such decisions.

Consider for example such matters as buying a house, or a car or a camera.

In each case you can see what you are getting, but you may need an expert to help you assess its potential, its condition and its suitability.

But, the producer cannot take it back after a few years and give you something else in its place which performs differently.

That is not true of financial products. The contracts are typically written so that there is a continuous interaction between the provider and the 'owner', with the former having far too much discretion.

In many cases the assurances given at the point of sale are literally worthless. The owner may be committed for half his lifetime, but the provider can renege on its promises for fifty different reasons. ^x

2. "Informed consumers"

The chairman of the FSA, Sir Callum McCarthy, said:

“I am concerned to see a retail market for financial services in which there are informed and responsible customers.” ^x

The adjective "informed" as in "informed choice", "informed consumers" is so vague that it is fallacious when applied to savings products.

The basic question is not whether or not people are “informed” but whether they have time. “Informed” is not well defined, since the amount it is possible to know is not finite. How much do you need to know to become "informed"? What about for example, hidden charges? The more time you have to devote to the topic the better informed you become. I agree with:

“Survey after survey confirms that the shortage Americans feel most is not information, not education, but time! ... The 'lack of time/ unwillingness to take the time' syndrome is the ultimate trump card in the whole equation. All efforts to empower, educate and expand choice ultimately fail when confronted with this reality.” ^x

The FSA talks about the need for "better informed consumers" ^x This is referring to information supplied by the industry. If these “consumers” try to find out anything for themselves there are all sorts of problems such as “commercially sensitive".

I recently tried to obtain the With-profits Payouts Survey from the FSA using Freedom of Information. They would not provide it initially because it was not confidential. It is “in the public domain”. “Section 21 of the Act (Information accessible to you by other means)”. But to obtain the information I needed to write to all lifecos. They sent a list of the names and addresses. Rather than provide me with the survey information which they had compiled, they were expecting me to carry out my own survey!