Pension charges eat 40pc of your money Fees and charges are so desperately complex that few savers can understand the full figure for all the various layers of costs and fees that they pay When people buy a pension related savings product, it's normally easy to see the charges for the pension wrapper but practically impossible to see the cost of what lurks inside. One of the few areas of genuine competition is the Sipp market, with some of these do-it-yourself pension wrappers available for just £250 a year. However this is just a fraction of the overall charge, which can include adviser charges, fund management fees and dealing related costs. The pensions and savings industry, aided and abetted by the regulator, has successfully ensured this myriad of separate charges, disclosed (when they are) are detailed in different documents, ensuring that most purchasers can never be sure what the full cost of their pension really is. However, it is possible to have a fully transparent, low cost pension product that can achieve good investment performance via a portfolio of ETFs within a Sipp; providing diversification at low cost. Lower charges can make a significant difference to retirement pots; through the power of compound growth - saving just 1.4pc a year in costs over 25 years is the equivalent of an extra 42pc added to your pension pot. For the past year "The True and Fair Campaign" has highlighted the extent to which savers and investors are being ripped off by companies that fail to disclose the fees they charge. This lack of transparency prevents fully informed choices and restricts competition in the pensions market. It is time that pension fund costs came under the microscope, particularly as an extra £11bn will flow into these schemes over the next five years with the advent of auto-enrolment. But the problem of opaque and uncompetitive charging is not unique to the pensions sector. It is endemic across the wider savings and investment industry. Despite mounting pressure on the industry to move towards full disclosure of fees and charges, the fact is that precious little has changed. The OFT's move to launch an investigation into practices previously ignored by regulators and the industry is long overdue. The proof of the pudding will be in whether disclosure of pension fund costs and fees empowers savers to shop around for better deals from pension providers. Fund manager SCM Private sell funds based on low-cost ETFs. Gina Miller, is a founder of the True and Fair Campaign (www.trueandfaircampaign.com) and SCM Private.