Financial advice could - and should - trickle down better to employees when it comes to helping address financial resilience within the workplace, Lizzie Holliday has said.
The director of policy and public affairs for Now: Pensions said that, at a simple level, there was not enough information provision in the workplace to help people - particularly women - achieve better financial outcomes.
Speaking on the FT Adviser editor's podcast, she said it was important to give women more information to help them understand what levers they could pull to achieve what they wanted with their retirement income.
"From an adviser to employer perspective, think about the breadth of support or incentives or products that could be offered for different needs", she said.
Wellbeing packages, training, rehabilitation and pensions were all "part and parcel" of workplace benefits, she added.
Also on the podcast was Anna Sofat, a financial adviser by background and now chairperson of workplace gender equality organisation One Loud Voice.
She had "three asks" of the financial advice profession when it comes to helping the "sticky middle" - that is, the women in the middle of their careers, who have not saved enough and have limited options.
The first was for the profession to train more women advisers. "There is still a big gap out there, according to the Financial Conduct Authority's survey. There must be a concerted effort among all firms to train more women and bring them on - similarly with fund managers."
Her second request was for companies in financial services to do more to address the pay gap. "We're the second worst sector for pay gaps, so companies must look at what they are doing."
She said: "The third is around education".
Referencing an earlier point in the conversation, wherein Holliday had said Now: Pensions was working with policymakers to encourage better financial education for young people and women, Sofat urged the government and industry to help support more concerted financial education initiatives.
Other initiatives include advisers making sure their employer clients are offering a good range of insurance products.
Not just death-in-service, she said, but also some form of income protection or critical illness, as well as access perhaps to short-term savings platforms.
To listen to the full podcast, click on the link above.
