Former pensions minister Guy Opperman has joined pensions fintech Raindrop as a non-executive director.
Raindrop offers a platform that helps savers track down lost pension savings, and currently partners with a number of providers, including Aegon and AJ Bell.
Opperman was the UK’s longest-service pensions minister, holding the role from June 2017 to July 2022, when he was instrumental in boosting engagement, expanding AE and growing the master trust market as well as working on legislation for the introduction of pensions dashboards. He was also the financial inclusion minister.
Since leaving Parliament, Opperman now holds a number of consultancy and board roles in the pensions industry. He was appointed as a strategic adviser for pension administration provider Aptia in January this year, and is also a senior adviser to Smart Pension.
As NED at Raindrop, Opperman will play a key role in Raindrop’s growth as the platform looks to unlock savers’ access to pension finding tools, while also developing new products for financial institutions.
Research from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) shows that just over £31bn is estimated to be sitting in 3.3m lost pension pots in the UK. Since launch, Raindrop has located over £1.6bn in pension savings from 172,000 pots for customers.
Raindrop co-founder and CCO Vivan Shridharani says that Opperman will play a “leading role” in the company’s future growth. “There is huge consumer demand for simple pension-finding tools as people look to take control of their retirement savings. Simple solutions such as Raindrop allow savers to simply track down their lost pots with minimal hassle and play a central role in supporting consolidation.”
Opperman adds: “I look forward to supporting Raindrop’s continued strong growth. I have been impressed with the work of the founders who have built an innovative platform that delivers real impact to both UK savers as well as pension providers.”
“Raindrop will be an important add-on to the UK master trusts and other wealth providers who operate in this space. A private sector solution like Raindrop will be further enhanced by the eventual arrival of the Pensions Dashboard in the UK, whenever that will be.”