Pensions  

Simplified advice may lead to ‘suboptimal’ pension incomes

Holistic pensions advice to save money

The report’s findings would also suggest the need to remove the separation of permissions to advise on pensions and investments, and other regulated products such as equity release. 

Glancy said: “Siloed conversations and duplicate costs will lead to two suboptimal outcomes as opposed to one overall optimal outcome.

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“There is unlikely to be a single product solution which would be appropriate to all scheme members. We think a framework approach would be more suitable based on the research that we've done.  

“And meeting customer needs more fully is going to require regulatory and legislative intervention.” 

Glancy also warned against rushing into solutions which did not meet the needs of savers. 

“If you take CDC (collective defined contribution schemes) as an example, then there's a bunch of people that like it and a bunch of people that don't.   

“So the bulk of people who like it produce really complicated, actuarial and economic equations that can run for pages and it’s about looking at the length and complexity of the equations. 

“The people that don't like CDC, they've got another bunch of economists and produce a bigger set of equations.

“But what the CDC debate is not doing is taking into the views of the customer, the public. That's what we wanted to do.” 

Glancy said helping people make best use of their hard-earned savings was an imperative to the nation. 

“With an election looming, pensions is an incredibly important topic and decumulation more than ever, helping people make best use of their hard-earned pension savings is not only an imperative for Scottish Widows, but I think it's of huge importance to the UK nation.” 

Samantha Downes is a freelance financial journalist