Action
Watkins added the industry will need to conduct a slightly deeper dive into the populations within each of the diverse categories to work out how we might be able to address the issues.
“That might be through proposition, but it's more likely to be around what kind of support and education do we need to give those groups,” she said.
“There's also something about advisers reflecting the diversity of the population that they serve.
“I haven't done any research into the diversity of IFAs in the UK, but to the extent that they don't reflect the UK population, and you don't see the LGBTQ community, reflected in that population. That might be a reason why some of these people are saying they actually feel intimidated to go and get financial advice.”
Watkins suggested one policy change that could benefit those people who have not taken advice on their pension.
“There's one policy call out that we are really keen to push out there, and that's around automatic enrolment,” she explained.
“Automatic enrolment has been unbelievably successful in terms of getting people to save but there is an earnings threshold below which they don't take contributions.
“Our policy call out is to effectively remove that threshold and then make it optional for the employee to contribute, but making the employer contributions mandatory.
“In doing so, some of these challenges we're seeing with disability, ethnicity, and sexuality might be addressed because at least some contributions are being made into a fiction pot for them.”
tom.dunstan@ft.com
If you would like to be featured in our New Voices series, or you know someone who would be a good fit please get in touch with Tom Dunstan at tom.dunstan@ft.com
