Pension Wise wants you to promote their service
The industry is in a good place but more needs to be done to encourage people to take up the offer of guidance and make enough provision for retirement, Michelle Cracknell has said.
The chief executive of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) made the comments to delegates at a conference in London, hosted jointly by the Open University Business School and The True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance (PUFin).
She gave a short overview of Tpas, including the numbers of people it has helped and what sort of help and support people needed to make decisions.
Ms Cracknell said: “We are in a good place but need to encourage more people to take up the guidance on offer and make their own provisions for saving for retirement.”
She said Tpas had seen its volume of interest up by 81 per cent since the pension freedoms came in, with 83,500 customers over the first six months since April, compared to 103,000 for the whole of 2014 to 2015.
However, she said there was a need to improve signposting earlier and that this should not just come from providers - it had to be more independent or government-led.
She said: “We have got a big job to do to change mindsets and show people that pension planning is really about them.
“Customer satisfaction is hugely important but sometimes as advisers you might have to tell them something they might not like, so this could have an effect on how clients feel.
“But pensions do need special treatment. How people are supported in their pension decisions needs to be different, as for many people, the vehicle is not like an Isa - the vehicle is something they have not chosen for themselves. It is chosen by their employer.”
She admitted that Tpas could not “sit in isolation” and said although it was a good starting point, there needed to be more collaboration across the industry to deliver better outcomes and break down the barriers.
Ms Cracknell’s comments come after pensions minister Ros Altmann kicked off this week by admitting retirement wake-up packs from providers “simply don’t make people appreciate why they should contact Pension Wise.”
Ms Altmann said: “I had a wake-up letter from my Sipp provider. It was three pages long and was almost all about calling their phone line, with the implication there would be individual advice.
“There was only a passing mention of Pension Wise at the end. It needs to be the other way round.”
Ms Altmann said she truly believes that the industry should do a lot more to send people to the guidance service.
jonny.paul@ft.com
