Open architecture platform TILLIT is eyeing the workplace pensions market with the launch of a group Sipp later this year.
The company, which was founded by a former Baillie Gifford investment manager and analyst, already offers a stocks and shares Isa and general investment account. With these investment products TILLIT offers a range of “curated” investment options, spanning best-in-class funds across different assets, regions and styles. It says its ‘jargon free’ approach enables investors to build an investment portfolio suited to their own needs. As part of its proposition it offers a annually decreasing platform fee structure, which would also be replicated on the new group Sipp.
The group Sipp will be offered in partnership with Seccl, a custody provider. It will not an auto enrolment Sipp.
This announcement follow recent government proposals to move towards a ‘pot for life’ model in the workplace pensions market, giving employees the right to pick their own pension provider. Consultation on these proposals recently closed — although there has been considerable criticisms of these plans from consultants and providers working across the DC workplace sector, who are concerned about severing the link between employer and pension provider. Plans have been supported by financial services companies like Hargreaves Lansdown that operate their own platform and have a strong footprint in the retail Isa and Sipp sector.
TILLIT founder and CEO Felicia Hjertman says: “Workplace pensions are broken. The industry desperately needs innovation and change. People don’t engage with their pensions; they save too little. If the industry doesn’t innovate then we are heading straight for a pension crisis.
“The responsibility to ensure you have enough in retirement has already shifted from the employer to the employee. Consequently, we believe that employees should also have a say in where their pension is and how it’s invested.
“To get people to engage, you must give them the chance to take ownership of their pension in the first place. That is what we are on a mission to do as we gear up to launch a pension offering that puts long-term savers at the heart.”
TILLIT says more details about the proposition would be confirmed later this year.
