Pay out extra? Not to this lot

However much insurers and mortgage leaders protest, they hugely over-promoted endowment policies.

Even now the industry shows huge arrogance, or perhaps simple ignorance: an industry spokesman now recommends topping up endowments to make good shortfalls. Yet this would mean paying extra to firms already failing to deliver.

This business is indeed, as Colin Brown of the Financial Services Authority Consumer Panel says, a mendacious one. But the results have been vastly magnified by the changed economic conditions that cut share prices and interest rates.

On the horizon, rising longevity threatens to blow holes in pension funds and insurers' balance sheets. Many people are staking their futures on the growing value of their homes. But there is no sure bet; the solutions to some problems will probably have to come from social change, not personal wealth.

The best any of us can do now is save if we can afford it; avoid any product we don't understand and spread our investments. Oh, and hope for the best.