Vince Smith-Hughes, head of business development at Prudential, has revealed he is not surprised that pension credit cards have so far failed to materialise.
In the latest FTAdviser video interview, he said advisers will see more innovation from providers “but it might take time to happen.”
Speaking to FTAdviser’s Emma Ann Hughes, Mr Smith-Hughes said the first port of call for the pension providers was to make sure they were fit for purpose for the changes that happened in April.
He said: “In fairness, we didn’t have a huge amount of time to make that happen. Most providers are there now and able to offer the pension freedoms on their pension contracts, which is good.
“I think the next stage will be looking at what we need to develop the market and additional types of solutions that clients can actually access.
“So, a few things that immediately spring to mind, are clearly we have still got annuities available that are right for some people and we have still got drawdown available but perhaps there will be solutions that become available that offer some of the possibilities of drawdown but with additional guarantees as well.”
When asked would Prudential produce a new-style retirement income product, he said: “We are not looking at totally new solutions because we are in the lucky position of already having a drawdown arrangement with a particular range of smooth funds that works very well in the market and those funds have attracted an awful lot of money.
“We are certainly working on the IT solutions, so being able to enable advisers to be able to transact a little easier with us. That is our core focus at the moment.”
Mr Smith-Hughes also reveals his thoughts on whether Pension Wise and providers acting as a “second line of defence” are preventing savers from blowing their pension pots in one go and his views on whether pensions will soon become more like Isas.
emma.hughes@ft.com
