The pensions industry should work to engage with members at key moments in their pension saving and retirement journey, according to PTL managing director, Richard Butcher.

Speaking at the Pensions Age Spring Conference 2021, Butcher argued that it was imperative to communicate with members when they were most open to discussions about their pensions.

“What we can do is communicate with people at points when they are vulnerable and open-minded to communicating with us,” he stated.

“Moments that matter: when they get a pay rise, when they pass a key birthday. It’s about communicating with people at a point when we can make a difference.”

Butcher conceded that the industry as a whole was “not very good” at member communications, saying that many had fallen into the trap of believing “more is better” and that the industry was “too analogue”.

“It’s not entirely our fault, regulators and legislators have a part to play in this too,” he added.

“We need to be able to deliver our engagement strategy, not just as an analogue proposition. We need to think about what a digital proposition looks like and deliver that. We need to move this industry into the 21st century.

“You see it every single day. Amazon, Facebook, all of the supermarkets, they are delivering genuine digital communications to you in a digital format. We can do that too.”

However, moving towards digital propositions is not without its risks, with Butcher urging those moving to digital communications to protect vulnerable members.

He continued: “We need to provide a safeguarded environment where they can continue to operate, because the more data that’s out there the more risk there is of scams.

“We must also not lose sight of the fact that some of our members are digitally disenfranchised.”

Butcher concluded: “We have the opportunity with connectively to genuinely change the way we communicate so we are genuinely engaging with people, using a digital format.

“We are never going to get away from complexity, but that’s fine. What we have got to do is not trying to make the pensions vehicle less complex, because we’ll fail. What we should focus on is delivering something that is simple, so allow it to be complex during production as long as its simple at the point of consumption."

Share Story: