PensionsMay 28 2014

Product review: Aegon Retiready

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In response to a survey showing only 7 per cent of the UK population is close to being ready for the retirement they want, Aegon UK has launched Retiready, a digital service that aims to help. The service demonstrates how making adjustments to pension contributions, planning, and managing money can make a substantial difference to what retirement will look like.

It is a digital service that allows UK customers to assess their readiness for retirement and gives them a score out of 100. If they are not on track, Retiready gives easy-to-understand tools and digital coaching to help them improve their score.

The service also provides users with access to a Retiready Pension, which offers one of four low-cost investment funds, or a Retiready Isa for savers who want easily accessible digital access to information about their pension and retirement savings.

www.aegon.co.uk

Comment:

It’s all very well the Budget bringing in greater freedom for UK savers to access their pension pots at retirement, but it still depends on people saving into them in the first place.

The new Aegon service, Retiready, is aiming to help by offering an easy, free system to manage savers’ expectations.

Making the tool free for anyone to use is good for accessibility – desktop and mobile versions are also available. The site itself is very well-designed, the questions are easy to understand and some questions are not compulsory.

The pleasant user experience means it could do well as an easy barometer for those who generally take a hands-off approach to their retirement savings.

Establishing how close people are to the retirement they want is a helpful first step in making sure they understand how to achieve it – and how unlikely it is that they will achieve it without effort.

Linking the system to some of Aegon’s more accessible products like low-cost funds and Isas means those who generally have little involvement with their pension savings can start to work in practical terms with the money they have.

Aegon has made this system as straightforward and user-friendly as possible and is wise to tap into the disconnect between individuals expectations and the reality.