Online provider Raindrop has developed a digital pension solution designed specifically to cater for self-employed savers.
According to the provider, savers have the option to change their pension payments whenever they want, opting for regular or one-off payments, or even pausing contributions.
The platform will give the self-employed the opportunity to directly invest in a pension as they do not receive the benefits of auto-enrolment, like their employed counterparts.
With Raindrop's pension, savers have access to a range of investment options from investment manager BlackRock.
In addition, Raindrop uses an AI bot service which can help unite savers with their pension pots, even for those with minimal information on their old plans.
According to the firm, through this service savers can then consolidate these old plans into one pot if they wish.
Raindrop decided to launch this product after it “pinpointed a major gap in the market for a bespoke digital and flexible pension solution”.
Marco Ross, chief executive of Raindrop, said: “Self-employed workers have long been forgotten when it comes to the current and complex pensions landscape. We know that there are many barriers for people in saving for their future and few solutions that solve them, until now.
“We also know from recent research that the pandemic has had a big impact on the ability of self-employed people to save and they want to do so flexibly.
“Raindrop goes much further than what is currently available in that it has been developed specifically for the millions of self-employed workers across the country, but also provides one easy-to-use platform to empower them to plan and save for their retirement in a way that suits their circumstances.”
A recent report published by the UK government-backed pension scheme, Nest, found more than 80 per cent of self-employed workers had no pension – yet three quarters of those polled still wanted to set aside money for their future.
Raul Tudor, chief technology officer at Raindrop said: “I was self-employed for almost a decade and know first-hand how complicated and difficult to navigate the pensions landscape can be, which is why accessibility is such an important aspect for us at Raindrop.”
Last week, fellow online provider PensionBee launched a flexible product for self-employed savers, enabling them to start a pension with no minimum contributions.
amy.austin@ft.com
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