Industry bodies should have more “drive” to get online and into a space that young people are, Aviva Wealth Academy lead, Mesoo Ubadigha has argued.

Speaking at a Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) Annual Conference 2024 panel session, Ubadigha stated that pension bodies joining social media and going into spaces that young people frequent would show them that “there is a presence there that they can trust”.

“It’s breaking down those walls and those barriers,” she explained. “Typically, people look at insurance and pensions as a cold and distant far off that has nothing to do with them, that it doesn’t really have any interest to them.”

However, Ubadigha suggested that young people are interested in pensions, and they know that they are something they should be thinking about, but the challenge was “where to start”.

She said that a lot of Gen Z go to TikTok for their information, arguing that “if that’s where the market is and that’s where the hunger is, I think that bodies should be really interested in making a presence there and giving some reliable source of information”.

Later on in the session, Ubadigha spoke on the importance of communication, suggesting that changing the language the pension industry uses would “change the game completely”.

“Language change would be beneficial for the demographic [of young savers], but in general as well there are plenty of bodies who say there needs to be more accessibility in terms … of the jargon,” she said.

“If the jargon is changed and it's more accessible. I think people will align to it more.”

In addition to making jargon more accessible, LCP senior investment consultant, Laasya Shekaran, said that financial literacy also plays an “important" role.

She explained: “When speaking about financial literacy we almost put all the onus on the saver to make sure they are doing all the work, to make sure they have an adequate pension.

“Members have a role to play but I think that there are other aspects of the system that need to be addressed to improve pension outcomes that financial literacy won’t solve.”

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