While he welcomed George Osborne’s plans to give pension savers greater freedom, the pensions specialist and founder of JargonfreeBenefits.co.uk said the government should scrap pensions altogether and replace them with a single, tax-efficient savings product.
Mr Bee said rolling savings, investments and auto-enrolment contributions into a longer-term product aimed at producing retirement income or covering long-term care costs, would “supercede the existing pension system and render the whole concept of silo-based products unnecessary.
“If we can trust people to manage their own financial affairs when they are pensioners, we should also be able to trust them while they are savers,” he said
Andrew Oliver, co-director of Kent-based IFA Andrew Oliver & Co, said: “We need a simpler way of encouraging people to finance their retirement without the restrictions and complexities we have now. The industry needs to be more innovative.”
Background
Last week, Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, said the annuities market had failed consumers and was in need of reform, adding that the government’s pension reforms should “bring more flexibility and innovation to the at retirement market”. She called on providers to introduce products that interact with the requirement for long-term care and match more closely the spending patterns of people in retirement.