The Treasury has recently announced its plans to build a pensions dashboard prototype that will let savers see all their pension pots in one place by March 2017.
Jonathan Watts-Lay, director, Wealth at Work, says: “Anything that helps people to understand what pension savings they have is a good thing. However, as retirement income is no longer just about pensions but all types of savings, the dashboard clearly has limitations as it only considers pensions.”
He adds: “So far a limited number of pension providers have agreed to take part in the development of the dashboard. Therefore, individuals may find that it doesn’t include their provider once it’s rolled out unless the government regulates to ensure all providers, including those pension providers with closed pension books, are included.
“Also, all pension providers have to provide annual statements to members, so while getting these statements in one place may be helpful, what individuals really need is guidance on how best to take income from all their retirement savings, and how to do this as tax efficiently as possible.”
Watts-Lay concludes: “The dashboard clearly does not get employers and trustees ‘off the hook’ for putting in place an appropriate retirement service that includes financial education and advice, to help ensure retirees do not make poor decisions or at worse suffer at the hands of a scammer.”