Getting ready for the future of pensions

Scottish Widows’ adviser summit shared exciting developments on the way.

Our adviser summit in London's Haberdashers’ Hall (2 May) was a great opportunity for many of the advisers and consultants we partner with to hear about the evolution of our Workplace proposition with the theme of the day, aptly, Future Ready.  

Those plans are wide-ranging after the past year’s business transformation which saw us move to a single stack platform.  

We also invested in our Scottish Widows app which now has industry-leading scores and is used, on average, more than 500,000 times a month.  

More recently, as we shared at the summit, our Moneyhub open finance partnership has given members the ability to see all their finances in one place. It’s exceeding all our expectations with 36,000 interactions, 3,600 connections – and 77% of those to long-term savings such as pensions.  

The fascinating development is how so many are using it to build their own pension dashboards, seeing all their pensions in our easy-to-use app, unlike others whose offerings link off to separate websites. 

With the Government's pension dashboard not yet ready after many delays, pension members are taking action so that they get a clearer picture of what their retirement income might look like. 

As we know, that’s a very positive thing and there’s a lot more to come here as we put people firmly in control of all their finances through new, digital experiences. 

Gamification is one way we’re planning this, as engagement specialist Robert Cochran covered in his session.  

Just around the corner is the launch of Navigate, the self-serve insight tool which lets employers understand members’ engagement with their pensions; and how they can benchmark that engagement level against schemes in the same sector.  

Advisers will be integral to how that's used by employers and how we all work together to improve member outcomes. 

That’s coming in late summer and it's clear many advisers see it as a great tool in scheme governance, as well nudging people to save more.  

I, for one, am really looking forward to seeing the difference it can make to members and those we know aren’t saving enough, particularly women. It’s a cause I feel strongly about. 

Power of data 

We’re fortunate to have access to the power of Lloyds Banking Group’s data pool here, giving us access to the second largest data set in the UK (after the NHS). That gives us tremendous insights into customers' behaviours.  

All these developments make me very proud of what we’re doing for our members, employers, trustees, and advisers, especially with the pace of change in the economic, regulatory and political landscape.  

The “polycrisis” over the past four years – pandemic, banking crisis, cost of living and wars – is something we’ve never had to contend with before.  

Head of Policy, Pete Glancy, shared his thoughts on the Government’s pension priorities, with productive finance seen as a way to grow businesses and retain the UK as a global financial centre.  

With Value for Money also taking up much of the current government’s focus and AE reform seemingly on the back-burner, policy is certainly keeping everyone on their toes. 

As a signatory to the Mansion House compact, we’re looking at how we can use pension investments in the productive finance space, something Kevin Doran our new Chief Investment Officer at Lloyds Banking Group is leading on.  

We’ll have a lot more to share on this in the coming months as we evolve our default pension proposition.  

AI is here 

Another development we shared is how we’re using AI to improve members’ experience, while taking time to build in guardrails so that it’s safe and used in an ethical way.  

Our experts demonstrated how using AI avatars in videos can be a quick way to turn text into images, in seconds. Multilingual avatars are something we’re testing too, so that we reach people in their own language. Watch out for some incredibly exciting Scottish Widows AI developments coming within the next year or so. 

I must mention too, our work in the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion space, with Master Trust lead Sharon Bellingham introducing our new ED&I framework and why it’s so important we remember all our members’ needs as we tackle the issue of pension adequacy.  

With Graeme Bold our Workplace pensions director wrapping up the afternoon with a recap, we were keen to get some audience feedback. 

"Vibe and energy" 

One adviser commented that it was the “vibe and energy that surprised her the most”, while another found the policy session the best most relevant for her role.  

The AI session went down especially well with advisers admitting to being in awe of how AI could transform everything from web experiences to helping to create better telephony support for members.  

The ED&I session prompted some, they said, to focus more on how they can bring that into their governance more.  

Another said that the afternoon’s sessions helped her understand how things like the new single architecture platform, app development, open finance via Moneyhub and digital developments all show Scottish Widows’ rapid direction of travel.  

That’s great feedback and I’m delighted they came away with that impression.  

Future Ready? Yes, we certainly are, and we want to be sure our members, advisers, trustees and employers are too.  

Video highlights of the event will be available on our workplace and adviser insights page in the coming week.  

Photos and content are now on our adviser LinkedIn channel.