Joint action from the Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulation is critical to improving the consumer journey on pensions according to Aegon.
Its comments come in response to TPR’s and the FCAs joint call for input on this issue, particularly in relation to the early stages of a consumer’s pension journey.
Aegon says the greatest risk of detriment is among those who don’t start saving for a pension. It also says there is a risk of confusion from the array of regulatory initiatives on this topic. Aegon also called for a “joined up approach” from the two regulator which encompasses both accumulation and decumulation stages.
Aegon pensions director Steven Cameron says: “It’s those who engage early with pensions that have the greatest chance of good retirement outcomes, but it will be critical to ‘join up’ any new earlier interventions with the journey approaching and into retirement, from both a regulatory and consumer perspective.
“It’s also particularly welcome to see FCA and the Pensions Regulator working together. This collaboration will hopefully avoid different approaches between trust and contract-based workplace pensions which can create customer confusion and additional costs. A current example of this is the different proposals from FCA and DWP on stronger nudges to pensions guidance.
