From our health and fitness to finances and travel, we’ve increasingly moved online to manage our lives. Now imagine you could better manage your retirement savings by simply downloading an app or logging in online – what would that look like and how would you use it?
The pensions dashboard has the potential to transform the way in which people interact with their retirement savings whether that’s seeing all your pension pots in one place, locating ‘lost’ pensions, or taking action to improve your finances – the dashboard promises to move us light years ahead of where the pensions sector currently stands.
In our pensions dashboard report, which we launched today, we gave a series of recommendations aimed at the government and industry to help make sure the project is a success for consumers.
We are currently hosting a Pensions Dashboard roundtable this morning at Which? HQ with @DWP, @AvivaUK, @SteveWebb1, @BritishInsurers @ThePLSA and the @PPI_Research
Follow the debate here and get involved in the conversation using #PensionsDashboard https://t.co/EJ6H4yi0zo
— Which? (@WhichUK) February 20, 2018
But the dashboard will only be a success if people actually use it. And if those who should actually be using the dashboard aren’t the driving force behind it, then it risks ending up a wasted opportunity.
Dashboard debate
So what should it look like? Well, recently there has been much debate over the benefits and risks of multiple dashboards for all your different pots versus a single dashboard.
Fundamentally, your dashboard should be tailored to your individual needs and financial situation.
Introducing multiple dashboards could offer savers more of a choice over how and where they can access their pension information, and organisations could present this vital information in the best way for their customer base.
However, there are concerns that allowing commercial dashboards could result in providers promoting or recommending products which may not be in the best interests of the consumer.
And that’s why we’ve called for robust regulation of dashboard providers, including a requirement for standardised and consistent information across both government and commercial platforms.
Savings information
Being able to trust the information you’re getting from the dashboard is critical. All savers need to be able to trust where the information comes from, and this is especially so if it involves sharing personal data.
Trust could be achieved through a non-commercial pensions dashboard, and potentially one hosted by the government’s new single financial guidance body.
However, given that currently, only 36% of consumers say that they use government advisory bodies as an information source on their retirement options combined with the low levels of uptake of existing services such as Pension Wise, this might not be the only solution.
Your pension savings
A pensions dashboard is a great opportunity for the sector to radically change the way people think about their retirement funds. It has the potential to make the most of technological advances to increase consumer engagement.
But limiting innovation or reducing competition in the sector risks limiting the impact of the project and ultimately failing to get the significant number of disengaged pension savers thinking about their retirement funds.
So how can we make sure this dashboard works for you? How would you want to use the dashboard? What would you expect to see on it? Would you trust a dashboard that was hosted by your pension provider? Do you think a government dashboard could foster much-needed innovation?
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