Dashboards with useful tools will deliver better engagement

26 February 2022

Recent ABI data showed that 60% of people said that pensions dashboards will help them better understand their pension, while 67% of 18–34-year-olds said they would find it useful if the dashboards had an automatic slider to help them model the impact of increased contributions.

Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said the “holy grail of a pensions industry” was how to get people to engage more with their retirement savings. Pensions dashboards have the potential to do this, but it is important to get the design right, she added.

“Being able to see your pensions all in one place is valuable but a static experience where you log in and view what you have only goes so far. Such a dashboard would be little more than an expensive turbo charged pension finder – not bad, but you could do a lot better. For younger people in particular, interactivity with the dashboard will be key to boosting their interest in retirement planning.

“While the ability to transact – for instance combine pots – on the dashboard may not be appropriate until people have become more familiar with their options and the potential pros and cons, providing tools where people can model the potential impact of changing their retirement age or contributions could really spark interest. While it’s fair to say these tools are available elsewhere sending people to multiple sites could be seen as too time consuming and put people off.

“There is lots of ongoing work being done on how to best support people making retirement income decisions and the recent Work and Pension Committee’s report highlights the dashboard, alongside services such as Pension Wise as having an important role to play.

“While the primary concerns for those developing the dashboard are that it be correct, up to date and secure, offering tools to help people understand the impact of their decisions could be key to the dashboard’s success.”

Professional Paraplanner