LV’s robo-adviser firm Wealth Wizards is developing a tool to include social media in the process of fact finding data about different pension pots.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the Tax Incentivised Savings Association (Tisa) in London last month, Simon Binney said in the retirement journey, a lot of people aren’t sure of other pension pots that they might have accrued over the years.
He told FTAdviser that the company is developing a database with employers and related pension schemes, so it can “make some good educated guesses on what pension schemes a person may have been associated with” by looking at an individual's Linkedin profile.
Mr Binney added that this tool should be ready to use by the end of 2018.
Wealth Wizards launched a robo-paraplanner tool last May, which helps firms provide retirement advice in less than two hours.
The tool automates at retirement advice with a fact find questionnaire, which produces a suitability report.
Wealth Wizards said the tool generates a "regulated advice solution" made up of an annuity, drawdown or a blend of the two.
The report could then be edited by an adviser to make sure it suited the client's needs.
Mr Binney said: "What consumers/employees/members want is transparency.
"They say: 'I want to see everything that is available to me, I'm happy to do that through a trusted source, my adviser, or the organisation that is providing this information to me, but I want to see a very open book process of what I got, what is that going to turn into based on my appetite for risk, and how is that changing on a regular basis.
"And help me find any assets that I may have accrued that I'm not actually sure or I don't know they exist'.
"Let' use technology to be able to build that picture up and get people on a journey."
Mr Binney also urged providers to disclose their information under the pension dashboard project.
He said: "We really believe that the first ones to come to market [with this information] will be the ones to do best out of consolidation [of the individual pension pots into one provider]".
According to Nathan Long, senior pension analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, "using a LinkedIn profile to help track down old pensions is an interesting innovation in the market".
He said: "The challenges lie in the accuracy of the LinkedIn profile, but also the fact that not everyone is a user.
"Overall the pension dashboard should provide much greater information for members and their advisers once it gets up and running and I would expect any innovation using social media to be short lived.”
The plan behind the pension dashboard, which is due to be launched in 2019, is to create the technology to enable savers to see all of their retirement pots in one place at the same time, giving them a greater awareness of their assets and how to plan for their retirement.
The Department of Work & Pensions (DWP), which took over the lead in this project from HM Treasury last month, is inviting all relevant stakeholders for a discussion on 11 December.
Earlier in October, a project group, managed by the ABI and including 16 industry providers and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), set out its recommendations for what should happen next with the pension dashboard, calling for legislation, a timetable and a non-commercial platform.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
