Standard Life has enhanced its Client Analytics tool with new functionality that provides users with insight into their workplace pension scheme members’ expected Retirement Living Standards (RLS).
Users can now see how many of their scheme members are on track for a comfortable, moderate, or minimum income in retirement, as defined by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).
Standard Life’s Client Analytics tool, which was launched in 2020, is intended to help workplace clients gain a deeper level of scheme-based insight and understanding, allowing them to make decisions that aim to improve outcomes for their scheme members.
Standard Life head of workplace proposition Craig Monahan says: “We are now able to answer the question that many employers, trustees and advisers want to know: what standard of living will my members likely have in retirement? We are excited about the potential this offers them to understand the likely retirement prospects of pension savers and take action to help improve the outcomes for their members.
“We believe this will fundamentally alter how our workplace clients understand and take action to support scheme members. The new PLSA modelling coupled with existing filtering functionality enables targeted communications with bespoke messaging which is more effective in driving member action.”
Standard Life has spent six months creating the new functionality and user experience by modelling the data of over one million of its workplace pension scheme members to better understand the type of retirement they can expect.
Standard Life has expanded its internal modelling to include a scheme member’s own Standard Life pension assets, the state pension, and a proxy measure for workplace pension assets that may have been accumulated elsewhere, based on the PLSA’s updated retirement income targets.
To meet the challenge of ensuring that the modelling remained consistent with the PLSA’s calculation basis, both organisations collaborated throughout the development stage.
PLSA director of policy and advocacy Nigel Peaple says: “We introduced the Retirement Living Standards to support better saver engagement by helping people picture the lifestyle they want when they retire and to understand the cost. As more and more savers get used to seeing the Standards in the communications they receive from their providers, it is positive to see Standard Life innovate further by incorporating them into its Client Analytics tool. This will be beneficial in helping employers engage workers with their pension savings and transform the way people think about the way their saving habits today will provide an income later in their lives.”