Too many Britons have too many pension pots that they cannot even begin to take control of, but a great deal more work is needed to help the next waves of pensioners than simply bringing in the long-awaited dashboard.
This was one of the discussion points during a panel session at the FT Adviser Financial Advice Forum this week (September 24), held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in London.
Chaired by FT Adviser news editor Amy Austin, the panel asked what lay in store UK pensions. According to Kim Gubler, chairperson of the Pensions Administration Standards Association, "leveraging technology to deliver better outcomes to savers" was crucial.
She pointed to the promise of a pensions dashboard - which has been hit by serious delays - as going a long way towards helping people to keep track of lost pensions, but admitted it was not the only answer.
One delegate told FT Adviser: "The admin involved in finding lost pensions is ridiculous. For a start, there are so many different iterations of scheme names; how can [clients] tell which one is the right one?"
This was why it is so important for advisers to be able to help clients find, identify and, where it is in the best interests of the client, consolidate pension pots - although the panel noted that often there were too many hoops to jump through in doing so in terms of admin and technology.
They recognised that paying for advice would not therefore always be cost efficient for those with smaller pots.
According to fellow panellist Tim Middleton, director of policy and external affairs at the Pensions Management Institute, there was "clear evidence that members are making poor decisions" in terms of decumulation, and he called for better initiatives to address these.
The panel, which also included Fiona Frobisher, head of policy for The Pensions Regulator, agreed that better legislation, including any of the recommendations that will be made following the new Labour government's review into pensions, was needed to make the journey easier.
Austin asked whether the value for money proposals, as well as plans set out by the Labour government, would go far enough in tackling the problems for millions of pensioners.
Frobisher said for the millions of people in defined contribution schemes, especially those who have been auto-enrolled, the government and industry must work towards "delivering pragmatic solutions", which included paying attention to increasing people's knowledge and understanding.
The panel also urged for effective implementation of much-promised legislation that would give UK pension schemes greater investment choice to help match long-term liabilities and the need for income in decumulation, such as enabling greater investment in real assets and infrastructure.
