Scottish Widows has launched a digital service for its workplace pension customers that gives access to valuations, contribution history and details of how their assets are invested.
The service also allows them to update their personal details and access educational material and videos about retirement planning.
Additional functionality in the form of a pension health-check tool will follow later, allowing employees to model the impact of making changes to their pension contributions and when they want to retire, as well as adding details of other pension pots and projecting future income in retirement.
The service is being rolled out to Scottish Widows’ workplace pension customers over the next six months, and has recently been promoted to around 30 employers as part of a national roadshow run by Scottish Widows and Pension Geeks. More than 10,000 employees are already using the service, with registration rates from email invites exceeding 25 per cent says Scottish Widows.
The launch is part of Scottish Widows’ £80m Driving Pensions Value programme which was launched in 2016.
Scottish Widows corporate pensions director David Holton says: “We’re fully committed to getting people engaged with pensions and this latest development puts the key details at our customers’ fingertips, providing easily accessible tools and clear information needed to manage their pension and feel in control of their financial future.
“Building on the success story of mobile banking, we want to make pension saving more accessible for all.”
Pension Geeks director Jonathan Bland says: “This new online tool allows customers to view and manage their pension fund in one simple place, much like they would with online banking, so this is absolutely a step in the right direction to getting people to connect with and feel in control of their pension saving.
“We were with Scottish Widows on the recent national Pension Awareness Roadshow, where they were promoting this technology and it was incredible to see, first hand, just how many people were engaging with it. Many didn’t know how much they had saved, or what they were putting away each month and within a matter of seconds, once registered, they were able to view all of this information on their phones and tablets.”
