The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also expressed concerns about how members are making decisions at retirement, explained Stewart Patterson, a director at Willis Towers Watson. The regulator is worried that members are sleepwalking into retirement.
For instance, some DC consumers’ retirement incomes could have been 13% higher if they had shopped around. Worryingly, one in three consumers were moving into drawdown unaware of where their money is invested.
The FCA has released two policy statements in 2019 to help improve consumer engagement. Schemes can take action to better support their members, said Patterson.
He suggested: “As a scheme or sponsor, think about what’s happening now. Are members engaged and aware of their options? What are you seeing in terms of members transferring out of DB schemes? Are some retiring with DB and DC pots?
“As a scheme or sponsor, think about what’s happening now. Are members engaged and aware of their options? ”
Stewart Patterson
Director
“Next, assess the FCA’s concerns about the market and to what extent these apply to your scheme. What member support do you already have in place and what else could you put in place?”
There is no one- size-fits-all approach, he said. It is a case of understanding the scheme’s specific population and where the gaps lie at present.
When asked what they would do if they could do one thing, the majority of the audience (53%) would offer more one-to-one support. Other popular options were to provide more online content and improved access to annuity broking or drawdown.
Next Chapter: How DHL revamped its retirement communications
Download
| Title | File Type | File Size |
|---|---|---|
| Pensions and Savings Conference 2019 Overview | 1.5 MB |
