The Association of British Insurers has called for pension dashboards to include interactive tools to engage younger savers.
Current proposals allow users to see their pension pots in one place but the ABI has recommended further actions be introduced including modelling tools that would allow users to see what would happen if they change their pension contribution and the impact this will have on their retirement income.
Other features recommended by the industry body were signposting to pension advice and guidance and integrating pensions data with other supporting services.
Research carried out by Britain Thinks found that over 60% of people believe dashboards will help them better understand their pension and 2 in 3 working adults are likely to use them.
However, as many as 7 in 10 would like dashboards to be interactive. This was especially true among younger generations.
More than two thirds (67.5%) of people said they would find it useful to move money from other accounts within the dashboard, while 65% would find it helpful to move money between or combine their pension pots within dashboards.
More than six in 10 (63%) of working age adults agree that the exporting feature offered by pensions dashboards would be useful.
The research also revealed confusion about pensions, with 70% of consumers considering pensions to be overly complex and complicated and 54% of working age adults finding it challenging to find their pensions information.
Yvonne Braun, director of long-term savings at the Association of British Insurers, said: “Our new research is clear: pensions dashboards will be very popular. But most people want to be able to actively engage with their pensions on dashboards, rather than use a read-only, static website.
“To ensure dashboards can truly empower people to engage with their pension savings, they must offer interactive features. Dashboard providers have to be able to innovate to meet the needs of younger age groups, and the legislation and the regulatory regime must allow for this.”
Rachel Rowlinson, research director at Britain Thinks, commented: “Across our research on consumer financial behaviours we find there is high demand for easy-to-use digital tools that help demystify products. This research has evidenced that pensions dashboards offer a real solution to significant issues consumers face in accessing, understanding and managing their pensions – which means there is a genuine appetite for use.
“The key challenge moving forwards will be to ensure that consumers are not only logging in as a one-off to look, but also being nudged to build habits around engaging with their pensions more consistently, and taking active steps to plan and manage their financial futures.”
Jamie Jenkins, director of Policy and External Affairs at Royal London, commented: “The development of Pension Dashboards is a key policy issue and a central plank of the digital agenda to help people engage better with their long-term savings. The digital journey – moving away from paper-based communications and data gathering – is a welcome step, and I hope we’ll see further developments to the functionality arriving swiftly afterwards.”
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