EXCLUSIVE: Less than half (46%) of employer respondents offer at-retirement support to employees, compared to 45% in 2014, according to research by Employee Benefits and Close Brothers.
The Employee Benefits/Close Brothers Pensions research 2016, which surveyed 250 employer respondents, also found that 49% of respondents run retirement seminars for staff in the 12 months ahead of their planned retirement, and 40% offer support through online modelling tools.
The changes introduced under the pension freedoms giving pension scheme members much greater choice around how they access their savings at retirement make it difficult to make like-for-like comparisons about the methods used by respondents to deliver at-retirement support since we last asked this question in 2014. The type of information required by staff approaching retirement is now likely to be very different, which, in turn, could have impacted how respondents deliver this support.
In 2014, when pension scheme members were required to purchase an annuity at retirement, the most popular methods of support offered by respondents were: access to an annuity service other than that of the organisation’s pension provider; other forms of financial education; access to an annuity service through the organisation’s pension provider; and retirement workplace seminars.
Although these are all still used by respondents in 2016, these options now appear much lower down the list.
Tune in to EB TV at 11am on 29 November for Employee Benefits Wired, where an expert panel will discuss key findings from the research. Tweet your questions for the panel using #EBWired.