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As we head into the new year, now’s a great time for members to approach their finances with a fresh perspective. Here’s how your clients can help boost members’ financial positivity levels throughout 2024 and beyond.
How many people are feeling positive about their financial situation?
Not that many, it seems, according to Standard Life’s Retirement Voice 2023 report. Our findings revealed that, for those who do no financial planning, just 21% feel positive about their finances.
But now for the good news. Our insights show that people who spend a bit of time planning are almost twice as likely (41%) to feel positive about their financial situation than those who do nothing at all. This jumps to 61% for those who do a great deal of planning.
The benefits of planning go beyond feeling positive. Planners are also more likely than non-planners to feel confident making financial decisions and that they’re saving enough for retirement.
Clearly, people who put plans in place are reaping the rewards of good financial wellbeing. This is further good news, because people who feel financially well are more likely to feel in control of their finances, be less stressed and distracted by financial worry, and more productive at work.
As the new year begins and members return to work after a well-deserved break, now could be a good time for them to approach their finances in a new light. Here’s how your clients can help get members’ financial positivity levels up in 2024:
1. Boost engagement with tailored comms
A good first step is to help members get more engaged with their finances. And the best way to do this is to understand what their financial priorities are.
Your clients could share an anonymous survey to gather insights into what’s important to their members, and use these to send personalised communications. Members are more likely to engage if relevant comms are landing in their inbox.
Clients could consider weaving these communications into their internal comms calendar too, to remind members of key milestones such as share scheme maturity or annual bonus pay day. Doing so could nudge them into thinking about their finances, and even help them to take action.
If your clients are with Standard Life for their workplace pension scheme, they can get insights like these through our Client Analytics tool. This allows them to see how many of their members are engaging with their pension plan and how many are on track to meeting the PLSA’s Retirement Living Standards bands. And if anyone is falling behind, your clients can boost their communication efforts for those specific groups.
2. Help members get to know their finances better
The next step could be to help members get a better understanding of their finances. Do they know their monthly incomings and outgoings, credit card usage, what’s going into their pension pots, or how much they’re saving?
Your clients can provide support by signposting to tools that help members get better acquainted with their finances.
For instance, Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can get a bird’s eye view of their finances through our Money Mindset platform. This uses open finance technology, which means members can see their bank, savings, mortgage, pension, and other accounts in one place, and in real time.
Services like MoneyHelper also provide calculators that can help people figure out their finances for a range of situations, from mortgage affordability to dealing with debt.
3. Raise awareness of transferring pensions
Most members have probably had a few jobs throughout their careers. So it’s likely they have several pension pots floating around – and it’s easy for these to get forgotten about.
In fact, it’s estimated that 1 in 4 UK people have lost track of at least one pension pot, which totals a combined value of £26.6 billion in unclaimed pension savings.
To help members avoid the same fate, your clients could consider raising awareness of pension transfers. Transferring pension pots into a single plan could make it easier and simpler for members to manage.
If members aren’t sure where to find their old pensions, your clients could signpost to tools that help locate them, such as the government’s pension tracing service. Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also use our Pension Finder tool, available through Money Mindset.
Remember that transferring pensions isn’t right for everyone and there’s no guarantee of a better income as a result of transferring.
4. Empower members to manage their everyday finances
We know that planning can go a long way to helping people feel more positive about their finances.
Your clients can help make it easier for members to plan their day-to-day finances by pointing them towards tools and resources that simplify the process.
MoneyHelper, for instance, provides budgeting tools to help people break down and prioritise their spending, as well as savings calculators to help them work out how much money to put away.
Our Money Mindset platform also allows scheme members to plan budgets, create savings goals, set up emergency funds, and get analysis into their spending.
5. Help members plan for retirement
When it comes to retirement planning, many members may not know where to start, especially if they’re decades away from retirement age.
Your clients can help demystify retirement planning by providing bitesize content and tools that break it down into manageable chunks. Doing so could help members tackle their future plans during moments of downtime, rather than it being an overwhelming undertaking.
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and MoneyHelper offer loads of useful information on how to plan for retirement. For members over 50, Pension Wise provides free, impartial guidance to help them understand their retirement income options.
Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also use our Retirement Income Tool. This helps them see how much money they might have in future and what kind of retirement lifestyle they’re on track for.
For more insights on financial wellbeing, including resources on how you can help support your employees, visit our Financial Wellbeing hub and read our articles.