28 August 2018
The introduction of pension freedoms in 2015 has had profound implications for how people can access their pensions savings.
However, to date there has been limited consensus around how best to build pre-retirement lifestyling strategies, and post-retirement drawdown products, in the light of this new environment. More fundamentally, is it still appropriate to have such a rigid dichotomy between “working” and “retired” phases of life?
Our working party, which includes members with backgrounds in life insurance, investment and pensions, has been working on drawing together research from across industry and academia on alternative products and strategies. In particular, we are exploring what types of products exist in theory but not practice, and what practical difficulties are preventing these products (such as deferred annuities) from being offered.
By building this comprehensive picture, and through indicative modelling, we hope to be able to provoke discussion around how product innovation could generate better outcomes for people approaching, and in, retirement. This could take the form of new standalone products, or alternatively through structuring existing products in new ways (i.e. using equity release as part of a drawdown solution).
We look forward to developing this work further and communicating any findings in due course!
Contact the working party via Mairi Russell, Communities Manager.