Could life assurance companies be ripping us off?

SIPPs are one of the best inventions to come out of the often overly creative minds of the market for years. They aren't for everyone though - not that that has stopped life assurance companies from having a go.

Have you ever been mis-sold something by a financial services company? Odds are the answer is yes.

If you've ever taken out a loan you've probably been brow-beaten into taking out Payment Protection Insurance with it, despite the fact that this is as Cliff D'Arcy of the Motley Fool puts it "the worst insurance ever".

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.