Otto Thoresen and Helen Dean, respectively the chairman and chief executive of Nest, have been called on to meet regularly with those who invest in the schemes they run to improve investor engagement.
On 12 October, investor lobby group ShareAction delivered a letter to the pair at Nest’s London offices that commended Nests’s low charges and commitment to transparency and responsible investment. The letter acknowledged that these factors influenced ShareAction’s decision to select Nest as its pension scheme for auto-enrolment for its own staff.
However, the letter also called for “a commitment from the scheme to meet regularly with interested savers to discuss how it invests their money.”
Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer for Nest, said he would commit to a meeting with ShareAction, and invited ShareAction staff to present to its member panel on members’ views.
To date, more than 9m people have joined a pension for the first time under the government’s auto-enrolment policy.
Adviser view
Hugh Nolan, chief actuary for national advisory firm JLT Employee Benefits, said: “Auto-enrolment has been successful to date but the first real tests will be opt-out rates when smaller employers come into scope, followed by higher contribution requirements for savers.
“In the longer term, the challenges are to enrol young people joining the workforce for the first time who will not have the gradual introduction to contributions we’ve seen to date, and to encourage all participants to save more than the minimum requirement to give themselves a decent standard of living after they retire.”