Enter The Pensions Portal – a new online platform, which has been designed to educate customers on the plethora of choices available to them at retirement following the introduction of the pension freedoms in April 2015.
Andy Kirby, its founder, said the technology platform was developed for employers and providers alike, with the aim of servicing an estimated 5.5m (according to Deloitte) savers who are either unable or unwilling to access financial advice.
The service is currently unavailable to adviser firms, although this might be in the pipeline, according to Mr Kirby, who added that he has been in dialogue with two adviser groups.
“We want to create an impartial platform that people can trust. We are hoping that people who watch our videos will go on to pick up their phones and ring an adviser,” he said.
Mr Kirby is no stranger to the struggles of those approaching the decumulation stage of retirement. He founded and owns a financial advisory practice called Mint Wealth Management, which focuses on financial planning for people aged 50 and over.
The qualified adviser also heads up adviser hub Adviser Home, which provides marketing and business development for advisers.
For his latest venture, Mr Kirby joined forces with Mark Thewliss, a Chartered Insurance Institute-accredited trainer, and John Glover, a founding director of Asset TV.
The Pensions Portal, which can be white labelled, packages its CII and Pensions Management Institute-accredited guidance through a series of animated clips – the duration of which typically ranges from between two and eight minutes long.
Users can track their progression and are incentivised to persevere with the guidance service through the use of ‘badges’, which are unlocked upon reaching certain goals.
The proposition comprises two services: the Pension Freedoms Portal and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Risk Warnings Portal.
The latter, labelled as the second line of defence in the compliance process by Mr Kirby, offers warnings of risk identified by the FCA – again through animation.
At the end, the client is required to answer a number of questions which will provide evidence to the FCA that the consumer has understood the risk warnings.
The frequency at which the content is updated is largely subject to the Chancellor’s appetite for tinkering with the pension system in future Budgets.
The company dodged the prospect of an inflated workload when the widely anticipated introduction of a flat-rate pension tax relief did not materialise in the previous Budget.
Mr Kirby and his team are not out of the woods yet, however, as many industry experts predict that the newly announced Lifetime Isa is a precursor to the widely touted pensions Isa.
Mr Kirby said: “Mark Thewliss is our content guru, and he will endeavour to ensure that the content is up-to-date. We will probably hold our breath when the next Budget comes around. Hopefully George Osborne will not tinker with pensions for a while.”
The Pension Portal is a new entrant to a somewhat saturated marketplace – with the likes of Citizens Advice Bureau and The Pensions Advisory Service traditionally servicing the UK population.
More recently, the government-backed organisations were handed the reins to the free impartial guidance service Pension Wise – which was created from the pension freedoms.
This begs the question: is there a need for another guidance service?
Mr Kirby thinks so. The Pension Freedoms portal allows providers to include links to the aforementioned guidance websites.
He said: “We like Pension Wise; we think it is a valuable service, but we do things differently. When posed with this question, I often respond by asking: “How many people have read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and how many people have watched the film? There lies your answer. A lot of people want to consume information through video.”
Mr Kirby revealed that the company has held talks with representatives from the FCA, the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury with the view to synergise by implementing its technology onto government-backed websites.
He said: “We are not averse to collaborating. Our key goal is to provide good information to consumers, which will hopefully lead to better decision-making and ultimately better outcomes.”
The price of the service is based on a combination of development, which factors in the level of tailoring and the amount of unique content required, and the usage fee, which is based on the amount of content accessed by the provider’s customers.
Mr Kirby said that the initial cost is benchmarked at between £10,000 and £20,000, while ongoing costs, which include the use of analytical services, is likely to be in the region of £6,000 to £10,000.
The service, which went live in May, has already garnered strong interest from industry providers.
Interestingly, Mint Wealth Management is part of the Intrinsic network, which is owned by Old Mutual – a potential client of The Pensions Portal.
This begs another question: has Mr Kirby pitched the product to the life assurer?
“Let’s just say we are using our sources,” he said.
Myron Jobson is a features writer at Financial Adviser
ANDY KIRBY’S CAREER LADDER
2015 – present
Managing director, The Pensions Portal
2011 – present
Director, Adviser Home
2008 – present
Director, Mint Wealth Management
2012 – present
Advisory council member, The British Heart Foundation
1998 – 2008
IFA consultant
Origen/Momentum Sept 1998 – Jan 2008 (IFA consultant / management)
1994 – 1998
Financial planning manager, HSBC
1987 – 1994
Clerical roles Barclays Bank
