Bitcoin could play a role in workplace pensions as members seek alternatives to traditional assets.
Speaking at the Corporate Adviser Summit, Cartwright director of investment consulting Sam Roberts said the pensions industry needed to confront the “crazy” reality that Bitcoin was now part of mainstream financial debate.
Roberts set out the challenge members face when managing money, dividing choices into “spending, saving and investing.” He argued that government currencies have “failed as a store of value,” pushing people either into overspending or investing in assets they “don’t understand.”
He said: “This is the problem we’ve had over the past 50 years. Savings in government currencies lose value every year because they keep making more of it. The result? People are forced into spending on things they don’t need or investing in things they don’t understand. That’s where most pension members are today.”
Roberts suggested Bitcoin offers an alternative saying: “This thesis is that Bitcoin is better money… and therefore it will absorb value from these other areas where it shouldn’t really be in the first place.”
Roberts also addressed concerns about volatility, highlighting the benefits of pound-cost averaging. He noted: “Imagine putting £10 a week into Bitcoin for four years. Yes, the price moves around, but you’re buying at highs and lows. On average, you end up in a better position than if you stuck the whole lump sum in at the start.”
Roberts argued the pensions industry’s complexity only fuels public frustration and that most people want to work their day job and save into something they can trust will hold its value. He said: “Things are way more complex than they should be. Every time we try to simplify things, we make them more complicated.”
While stressing that he was not urging wholesale adoption, Roberts challenged people to “test it in practice.”
He said: “Find £5 or £10 a week you’d otherwise spend on something you don’t need and drop it into Bitcoin. Just learn how it makes you feel. That’s the first step.”
Roberts added that “it is reckless to have a zero allocation” to Bitcoin, given its outperformance over the past decade.
He added: “I’m not saying everyone should pile in. But at the very least, it deserves consideration in pensions particularly when dollar-cost averaging is what we already do in DC schemes.”
He highlighted developments that could make Bitcoin more accessible to pensions, including payroll integration and tontine structures.
