The launch follows the recent appointments of Jonathan Parker who has been responsible for development of the investment solution, and investment consultants Lydia Fearn and Jesal Mistry.
The Barclays DC investment solution forms part of the corporate pension platform launched earlier this year with Aegon and Zurich and is a component of Barclays Beyond Benefits.
The solution allows members to make a more active selection in their pension investments by offering a range of alternative investment strategies and a wider guided and governed fund architecture.
The approach draws on research from within the Barclays’ Behavioural Finance and Quantitative Research team, which the bank says delivers better alignment with a member’s changing risk capacity throughout their working lives, taking into account a combination of the risk capacity and risk tolerance of members who will be investing in the default strategy.
The solution includes a suite of governed and researched default strategies with proprietary asset allocation designed by Barclays’ wealth management experts and bespoke profiling to the workforce or members using Barclays’ proprietary behavioural investment insight and risk appetite assessment derived from a database of tens of thousands of individuals.
It also offers wider guided and governed fund architecture for DC members who want it
Barclays Corporate & Employer Solutions head of workplace savings Katharine Photiou says: “Today’s workforce is likely to be made up of people from different generations at different stages of their career, with different needs and priorities. They will certainly have varying levels of knowledge, interest and awareness about pensions and investments, and be more or less willing to make their own investment decisions.
“Our view is that traditional retirement planning and DC investment strategies do not do enough to take account of an individual’s needs, or adapt to changing market conditions. Uniquely, our solution provides a range of investment options designed to meet the needs of different types of member, allowing them to invest in a way they are comfortable with and which meets their expectations.”
