Aegon has overhauled and digitised its ‘wake-up’ journey to highlight the options on its new Your Retirement Planner website.
The main element is an interactive income planning tool which responds to the information people provide on their savings and visualises what it could convert to in drawdown, a guaranteed product, annuity or cash lump sums depending on the mix of options they choose.
The site also explains the potential implications of different options. For example, the tool highlights that taking a large percentage of savings in drawdown each year could mean you outlive your savings, that taking a large cash lump sum may have big tax implications and that the reforms may encourage new forms of pension fraud.
To further bring to life new retirement options and challenges Aegon has created a series of animations involving a short-sighted mole, who initially fails to understand why blowing his pension all at once may not be such a good idea. Aegon believes that it is only by making retirement income challenges understandable that customers can be expected to make good decisions.
David Macmillan, managing director at Aegon, said: “The new pensions flexibilities will radically alter the retirement income market, but the vast majority of people will struggle to make sense of their options unless they can compare different options based on their own savings.
“Aegon will offer all of the pension flexibilities and has a service that will enable customers and their advisers to combine drawdown and guarantees that can be managed online. 14.7 million online banking apps have been downloaded in the UK and as a society we’re increasingly managing finances online. We believe the pensions industry needs to catch-up and that’s why we’ve focused our efforts on online income options.
“Your Retirement Planner isn’t limited to just those at the point of making a decision about their retirement income. We’ve built the site so that it can be used by anyone looking to better understand what their current savings might be worth when they come to retirement.”
The site design was based on insights from Aegon’s customer and consumer panel, with 65% of respondents saying they did not understand the new retirement options while 85% said an online tool would help them improve their understanding.
All Aegon customers approaching 55 and their advisers will be made aware of the site as part of a series of communications throughout the year. Customers approaching their selected retirement date will also be made aware of the site through the new two page ‘wake-up’ packs.
The site is designed to complement the information provided by the government’s Pension Wise service and Aegon believes that financial advice will be important for many of those approaching retirement. As a result the site will encourage people to see their adviser, as well as providing those without an adviser with a number of options to find one.