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Pensions are bit like root canal fillings: not something you want to think about unless absolutely necessary. That time has come. Who pays for pensions and who receives them affects the level and profile of consumer expenditure. And that's something which marketers cannot ignore.

The issues impacting pensions are simple and obvious. We are living longer, having fewer children and not saving enough. It doesn't take a genius to deduce that fewer people working will have to support increasing numbers of older people.

The term 'support' doesnít just mean paying pensions; it also includes providing health and residential care. This situation is not good, but it is only the start of the bad news. Todayís pension position is pretty grim, with 50% of older people having such low incomes that they are entitled to additional hand-outs from the state. If we look forward to 10 years' time then today's pensioners will appear wealthy. The picture in 30ñ40 years' time is too horrible to consider.

There are no easy choices. It either means working longer, saving more money, starting to save money at an earlier age, paying more tax or, most likely, a combination of all four remedies.

The Financial Times, not known for hyperbole, said: 'The traditional British penchant for muddling through has bequeathed a system that is incomprehensible, inequitable and inadequate.'