We have partnered with financial inclusion technology company Inbest, to integrate their Benefits Calculator into our Personal Financial Management platform.
November 6-10th 2023 was Talk Money Week - an initiative from the Money and Pensions Service that seeks to help people have more open conversations about their money - from pocket money to pensions - and continue these conversations all year round.
Money is a deeply emotive topic, and the anxiety, guilt or shame someone might feel around their finances may mean they find it difficult to talk about. Yet research has shown that people who do talk about money make better, less risky financial decisions, feel less anxious and can help their children form good lifetime money habits.
For the course of Talk Money Week we focused on one Moneyhub feature each day, that can help you to help your customers start talking money. Here’s the round up:
Understanding how much money is coming in, and where it is going out is the first fundamental step towards financial wellness.
One of the most significant sources of financial stress is not knowing if there'll be enough money left at the end of the month. As cash usage continues to decline the increased use of 'Digital' money means its harder than ever to keep track of direct debits, BNPL repayments, ad hoc bills and spending on debit, credit cards or payment services like Paypal.
Our budgeting, forecasting and analysis features make getting those healthy foundations in place as easy and intuitive as possible.
Users are encouraged to connect all of their spending accounts to give them a complete picture of their finances. Our technology can then identify income, regular bills and payments and the spending and income analysis helps build a very tangible, visual representation of what’s going where.
Every transaction is categorised so that the customer can create and set spending budgets for things such as fuel for the car, the weekly food shop, clothes for the kids or home repairs. No matter what account or card is used to make a payment the category is identified and allocated to the correct budget so they can see where their money goes and, when they are in danger of going over budget and take avoiding action.
UK adults owe £1.9t in personal debt. Failing to keep on top of debt can impact health, wellbeing and the ability to work.
A study from the Royal College of Psychiatrists found that half of all adults with a debt problem also live with mental ill-health. This ranged from a consistent feeling of anxiety and low mood to a diagnosed mental health condition.
Debt can be a considerable burden, made worse by dealing with it alone.
Worrying about debt can affect sleep. Losing out on a good night’s sleep can not only affect mood and energy levels, it can also affect someone’s ability to work or have good relationships with friends and family.
All of these things in turn can further add to debt problems.
Our Personal Debt Manager gives your customers a suite of tools to help them check, manage and adjust their spending so they stay in control of their income and outgoings.
We know that people get better outcomes when when:
They regularly check income, outgoing and bank statements, and;
Adjust spending on non-essentials when money is tight
Your customers can use Personal Debt Manager to connect all of their bank accounts, credit cards and loans in one place so they can check each and every transaction in real time. They’ll benefit from a range of tools, including Personal Balance Alerts, Spending Analysis, Regular Payments and Rent Recognition.
By utilising these tools, your customers can:
Gain sight of where their money is going and where changes need to be made and set realistic budgets
Reduce the risk of missing a repayment as they have a full list of upcoming payments to help them plan in advance
Even build their credit score through Rent Recognition
Eliminating debt is about more than the numbers - debt relief brings reduced stress and anxiety, improvements in cognitive functioning and changes in decision making. When someone clears their debt, it’s a significant life event.
With Moneyhub, you can help them get there.
Be it building an emergency cash fund for whatever life throws at them, or saving towards that all important first home, our technology can help you become a significant force for financial good in your customers’ lives.
With the Financial Conduct Authority reporting that nearly 13m UK adults have little capacity to withstand a financial shock, helping your customers build an emergency fund to weather a financial storm, or simply for a rainy day, can improve financial outcomes, build trust in your brand and deepen the relationship they have with your firm.
Moneyhub’s Emergency Cash Builder makes it easy for your customers to increase their financial resilience in three simple steps:
Personalise: Choose a connected account in which the emergency cash fund will be created and give the fund a name. It could be simply an ‘emergency fund’, or something more personal, such as ‘my holiday fund’ or ‘Mum’s 60th birthday’. Customers can create multiple funds for different goals. After naming their emergency cash fund the customer will be prompted to set a target amount and time period over which they wish to save.
Monitor: Each Emergency Cash Fund will automatically appear in the customer’s personal dashboard. They’ll see how much they’ve saved in total and how close they are to achieving their goal.
Celebrate: Moneyhub’s dashboard view provides a visual measure of success. Overlay a nudge in the app or any other communications channel to help the customer celebrate their achievement and provide them with an onward journey.
Customers can transfer money to their Emergency Cash Builder fund using their bank’s banking app or by creating a standing order. Or if enabled, they can use Moneyhub Open Banking payments technology to make a payment from within a Personal Financial Management app.
When people have some savings to fall back on, their increased financial resilience leads to reduced stress and anxiety, a greater sense of choice and control and even higher self esteem. With Moneyhub, you can help your customers get there.
According to Policy in Practice around 8 Million households in the UK are missing out on £16-19 billion in benefits every year. This works out at around £5k per household, every year - a potential lifeline for low-income households.
In 2021, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Welfare at a Social Distance found that the most common reason why people miss their benefits is that they are unaware of the welfare benefits they are entitled to or assume that they are not eligible
The main reasons people are not taking up benefits they are aware of:
Group A: 42% Wrongly assume they are not entitled
Group B: 39% Unaware of the range of benefits they could be entitled to
Group C: 19% Don’t apply because they are overwhelmed by the process, or find the stigma difficult to deal with
Description text goes hereWe’ve embedded InBest’s Benefits Finder into our Personal Financial Management solution, enabling people to identify benefits they may be eligible for based on their financial data.
The benefits calculator can help those in Groups A and B to find out which benefits they are eligible for and the boost to their income they could receive.
By incorporating the calculator into a financial management app, we can better serve Group C through personalised nudges and support articles, to help guide them through their benefits applications.
It’s no secret that the pensions industry has an engagement problem. In 2020 the Financial Conduct Authority found 59% of adults contributing to a workplace DC pension have low, or very low pension engagement.
Low levels of engagement correspond with low levels of understanding around pensions, and people are missing out on a better retirement.
In fact, one in five pensioners is now living in relative poverty in the UK, with the number of financially insecure pensioners soaring to more than two million.
With the government’s work on the Pensions Dashboard Programme stalled, our Pension Finder offers an interim tool to help people track down, understand and engage with their pensions.
Pension Finder allows people to build a full picture of their pension and make crucial retirement plans by connecting the Moneyhub app with their LinkedIn profile.
It is designed to help pension managers, workplace pension providers, trustees or advisors help their customers engage with their pensions, encourage them to save more cash for retirement and understand the long-term implications of their current financial situation and savings strategies.
Users can combine the pensions information found by analysing their career history with other information aggregated and calculated by Moneyhub in tools such as Moneyhub’s Lifestyle Modeller, which predicts people’s financial situation after a major event such as retirement to set lifestyle expectations.
When people have a complete financial picture they are able to make better decisions or get the help they need. The Pension Finder seeks to make financial admin easier and ultimately encourage savers to take positive steps to secure their future financial wellness.
You can offer your customers any of these features as part of our fully customisable white label financial management app, or incorporate them into your own offering as widgets.
As Pensions Awareness Week 2023 draws to a close, we’re reminded that 59% of adults contributing to a workplace DC pension have low, or very low pension engagement. Now is clearly the time for employers to be developing plans on how to better support staff with their retirement planning.
Low engagement isn’t good news for pension providers, individuals, nor the companies that employ them.
Leading the charge in boosting pension awareness is Moneyhub partner Standard Life. Standard Life’s Retirement Voice 2022 found that people who dedicate time to pension planning, are reaping benefits to their wider financial wellbeing:
They are almost three times more likely to feel more positive about their financial situation
More likely to feel confident in making financial decisions
More likely to enjoy retirement
But, despite these benefits, and the cost of living crisis encouraging more people to pay closer attention to their finances, their research shows that “when it comes to retirement planning, the vast majority of people (72%) are still doing little, if anything.”
Within the report, Standard Life put these low levels of engagement down to the advice and guidance gap, lack of education and support, and feelings of overwhelm when people do come across guidance or information on their pensions.
People who are not engaging with their pensions tend to have poorer financial wellbeing overall, with 66% worrying they are not saving enough for when they’re older and 47% feeling less confident in their ability to make good financial decisions.
For individuals, this leads to feelings of stress and anxiety, which in turn can lead to reduced productivity and performance for the companies that employ them.
While employers are beginning to recognise that financial wellbeing goes beyond paying salaries, it is still the least common area included in HR wellbeing strategies. Yet, as Gail Izat, Workplace Managing Director at Standard Life states, “employers are perfectly positioned to provide the information and guidance people need, because they can incorporate it into their workplace pension offering.”
In the midst of the cost of living crisis and the widening UK savings gap, it’s more important than ever that employers demonstrate a commitment to the financial wellbeing of their staff.
The good news is, with Open Finance technology like ours, it’s never been easier.
Pension engagement is one part of the puzzle. If people are struggling with debt, managing their day-to-day finances or even focused on saving money for something like their first home, paying attention to or contributing more to their pension will be low on their list of priorities. For people to have healthy finances in retirement, they must adopt healthy financial habits through their working lives.
Standard Life has understood this and incorporated Money Mindset, built on our Open Finance capabilities, into their workplace offering.
Incorporating an Open Finance proposition like Money Mindset truly sets Standard Life’s offering apart.
Money Mindset offers users a complete picture of their entire financial world (current accounts, savings, properties, investments, pensions and more) alongside forecasting tools and even a financial education hub.
Providers who adopt these solutions will be the ones who see higher levels of engagement from employers, really differentiating their offering in a crowded market. They can work with clients to augment Employer Value Propositions and bring a host of benefits to their end-users.
Fostering a more financially literate and resilient workforce benefits all parties mentioned in this blog post. Individuals gain confidence in managing daily spending and unexpected costs, get greater control and understanding of where their money is coming and going out, and get on track for a secure and sustainable financial future into retirement.
Employers reap the rewards of higher productivity and performance, reduced absenteeism and employee stress or burnout and become more attractive to, and better at retaining, top talent.
And of course, pension providers benefit from primacy among workplace clients and members, higher level of engagement and increased opportunities to boost AUM through consolidation or higher contributions. It’s win-win-win!
Would you like to find out more about how Open Finance could benefit your business? Talk to one of our guides →
The UK savings gap is a hugely pressing issue. The amount and rate at which working people are saving money for retirement is at a significant disparity with the amount required for a desirable living standard in later life.
Deloitte projects that the savings gap in the UK will reach a staggering £350 billion by 2050. This highlights the urgency to address the issue and find effective solutions to ensure individuals are prepared for their financial future.
Various factors contribute to the UK savings gap; increasing living costs, consumer debt, and a lack of sufficient financial education. Encouragingly, efforts have been made by the government and financial institutions to address this issue by introducing legislative changes and initiatives aimed at promoting savings, such as auto-enrolment, increased ISA flexibility, and the Personal Savings Allowance, but there’s still more to be done.
Savings capacity depends upon people having available money. At Moneyhub, we call this available money Potential. It’s the money left after non-discretionary spend is subtracted from income.
By helping users increase their Potential we can enable them to put more money in savings, investments or their pensions.
According to the FCA, over a third (34%) of UK adults have less than £1,000 in their savings. For 18-24 year olds, that figure jumps to 47%.
These shaky foundations mean that as people then move through their late twenties and into their thirties, they may struggle to build savings capacity for things like a first home. Many are renting and may have taken on debt to get through the day-to-day.
So how can Open Finance help people establish themselves financially with firm foundations to build upon? And how can it help financial services engage them?
Whilst no amount of tools can make up for chronic low income or help families who simply do not have enough money to make ends meet, most money advisors say that the key to staying in control is to monitor transactions, set and stick to budgets and avoid missing regular payments.
Our technology is designed to help people do just that. You can embed the following solutions within your own offering to help users manage their money better, and make it easy to do so:
Financial MOT
Budgets and Forecasts
Credit Score Improver
Emergency Cash Builder
First Home Saver
Benefits Finder
Personal Debt Manager
Complete Personal Financial Management App
Don’t just take our word for it. Ed is a Moneyhub user and father of 3. He’s worked in hospitality, the NHS and a forklift driver, and was struggling with debts he’d built up as a younger man
He explained, “I’d built up a lot of debt on credit cards by overspending and basically not having an understanding of where my money was and simply not caring. I used to buy things I could not afford and at the end of each month I was scrabbling around for pennies”
“I really like Moneyhub’s spending budgets, in fact they were almost life changing for me. I’d miss transactions in my bank accounts and credit cards and then spend ages going back trying to work out where everything was going.”
“By creating spending categories for everything such as fuel, beer, coffees, haircuts…all sorts of things, I could work out trends using the spending and income analysis, which enabled me to compare month on month. Looking back over the year I could see what I spent on average so I used that to set budgets and then every time I got paid I was able to put aside money in my bank account knowing that everything I had left was spare money. Since then my finances have turned around completely”
Once Ed felt in control of his day-to-day spending, he naturally started engaging with his longer-term finances:
“I had connected my workplace pension to Moneyhub so when the pandemic started I could see my pension’s value. Every day I looked it was going down as share prices were going down. Before Moneyhub I’d never have known about my pension but because it’s so visual, seeing the graph is brilliant. In fact it surprised me just how quickly pensions can go up and it's made me want to pay in more, especially now I’ve got spare money at the end of the month”
Open Finance makes it easy for people to engage with their finances where they might have felt overwhelmed before. With oversight of where money is coming in and going out, incremental changes can be made, which include putting more money aside for later life.
Open Finance also offers businesses the chance to create highly personalised customer journeys throughout their financial life, resulting in stickier customers with increased Potential, to go some way to bridging the UK savings gap.
Find out more about how our technology can help you unlock your customers’ Potential →
Moneyhub is on a mission to enhance lifetime financial wellness and stop money-related anxiety for good by helping people every day with their journey towards financial literacy, wellbeing and independence. But actions speak louder than words. Hear what our customers have to say and see how, with our Open Finance platform, we are solving real world problems today.
Samantha Seaton gives L&G magazine round up of how Moneyhub is disrupting the financial sector. Including insights on how the app is benefiting lenders and borrowers as well as how innovations in tech, such as 5G, will take the app to the next level. Asked what the future looks like, Moneyhub aims to unlock the power of Open Data and transform the way customers interact with financial data - truly maximising financial literacy nationwide.
What is Moneyhub?
Moneyhub is a truly unique financial management platform, deployed by companies in their digital propositions (directly as a white-labelled solution or embedded via APIs) enabling an entirely new level of personalisation and customer interaction.
As pioneers of Open Banking, the Moneyhub platform offers the most data links of any aggregation provider in the UK. Giving easy, consolidated access to credit cards, loans, bank accounts, mortgages, investments, pensions, SIPPs, ISAs for the end user.
Through AI, the platform will analyse an individual’s data and offer personalised ‘smart nudges’ to improve financial wellbeing. Standard nudges can be included or excluded on implementation by the company providing the solution, or bespoke nudges that are more tailored to the particular relationship they have with the individual can also be accommodated.
Moreover, by automating simple administration tasks like alerting when a loan-to-value threshold has been crossed on a mortgage, through to complex machine learning insights, Moneyhub removes the time and effort required to achieve optimal financial management.
Culminating with Moneyhub’s Payment Gateway to make nudges immediately actionable means a 40% increase on take up. All at a fraction of the cost of legacy payment methods such as Visa, Paypal and Stripe.
What are the greatest opportunities for borrowers and lenders using a platform like Moneyhub?
Lenders can benefit hugely from including a platform like Moneyhub in their proposition. It automates data capture and gives greater and more accurate insight into the spending patterns of their customers. Lending is no longer binary with a yes or no decision, a third option can easily be presented to help customers not yet meeting the lending criteria.
For borrowers, the platform enables them to be smarter about their finances and make more informed choices when it comes to spending and borrowing.
How do you see the generational gap affecting take up of mobile financial solutions?
In the digital age, consumer expectations are for smarter technology making it easier to achieve their goals.
With mobile financial solutions being utilised across the ages, it is the level of expectation from money platforms that divides the generations the most. Where millennials expect technology to present clear but highly personalised options, the older generation want to understand the reasoning behind any recommendations. In all cases the demand for speed, efficiency and seamlessness is increasing. One key difference is in the device that different generations use to manage their money, be it their mobile phone, browser, or tablet, so it is important to be agnostic and let people choose.
With effortless money management it is now possible to prepare for a sustainable financial future from an early age. It is equally attractive in later life when managing finances in retirement.
Even those that don’t directly embrace technology, and particularly vulnerable individuals, will benefit and be protected via Moneyhub Connect and chosen friends, family, advisers and solicitors.
And from a business perspective, the opportunity to engage with customers across generations and income thresholds is maximised by financial technology.
What will 5G and other innovations in communications make possible?
Knowing the next best thing to do with money and automating the action required will see consumers better off. Open Banking will become Open Data. This means the consumer will be in complete control of all their data encompassing pensions, insurance, medical, property, qualifications, driving profile and so forth. The result will be data working for the consumer to help them achieve their goals and improve their overall wellbeing.
Measuring how often people interact with our digital propositions will be a thing of the past. Outcomes will be the measure of success.
What are your aspirations for the future?
Moneyhub is a people first financial management platform designed to improve financial wellness by empowering individuals while providing businesses with insights that unlock growth. By championing the consent-based sharing of consumers’ financial data, we are seeing the maximisation of financial wellbeing across our client’s customers and employees.
Our goal is to unlock the power of Open Data and transform the way customers interact with financial data. By helping lenders and borrowers alike, we want to create a more sustainable and stable financial world.
The initiative may still be in its infancy, but open banking has already proved a catalyst for change – not only within the UK financial services sector itself but the savings landscape as a whole. Launched with the intention of increasing competition in the market and triggering innovation, it seems the momentum towards open banking is ushering in a new era of money management.
Just four years ago, research undertaken by the Social Market Foundation found that only a quarter of customers had current accounts with more than one bank. Today, our own analysis reveals that the average user now saves into three different accounts – often with a number of providers.
Thanks to the collaborative model made possible through PSD2, banking data is now actively being shared through APIs between unaffiliated financial service firms to deliver enhanced capabilities to customers. According to our findings, it seems these connections have quietly been encouraging UK savers to be more ‘savvy’, spreading their money across several accounts with different providers to boost returns.
While the majority of people are still more likely to save with their main provider – the average amount saved into a high street bank being £5,828 – the results of our study showed an increase in the number of users opting for challenger banks as secondary providers, with the average amount saved in these accounts sitting at £2,503.
Meanwhile, research published by the peer-to-peer lender Zopa supporting the increased breadth of bank accounts, found that one in three people hold two or more current accounts. It also found that almost half of those with a credit card do not have it with their main bank and more than one in four looks elsewhere for their regular savings and instant-access savings accounts.
These findings serve to illustrate the market shift that is taking place and the growing prevalence of the multi-bank approach; one that The Social Market Foundation cites as an indicator of a financially sophisticated customer who is more attuned to the benefits of shopping around.
Traditionally, savings were all managed with the same provider - customers held a current account, a savings account and any mortgages, loans or insurance premiums all with the same high street bank. However, the advancement of digital technology and enforcement of new regulations coupled with the ambition of FinTech entrepreneurs has sparked a savings revolution. Some users may still be tied to their banks, but when it comes to putting cash away for the future, society is moving fast towards the multi-bank model.
By splitting up savings into different cash pots, it becomes possible for users to tailor their returns to benefit from better rates. For instance, if one pot comprises of significant savings that you don’t intend to touch for five years, it might make more sense to invest it into stocks, shares, and funds in order to take advantage of more potential market growth.
Meanwhile, the money you might be saving for a luxury holiday in the near future could sit in a fixed-rate savings account while the safety-blanket cash you rely on for emergencies can remain in easy-access accounts that pay a lower rate.
Moreover, considering the cap on how much you can deposit to receive a good rate, separating your money is a smart way to mitigate risk. Under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, you are only protected for up to £85,000 per bank or building society in the event of a collapse. With your wealth split across several providers, you can minimise the risk to own savings in the event your main bank goes bust as many did during the global financial crash.
When it comes to managing money, the younger generations are set to face stronger headwinds than those experienced by their parents and grandparents. With this in mind, there has never been a better time for a transformation in the financial services sector. Today, what people need the most are tools that encourage engagement with their finances; they need visibility across all the various pockets of money they have, be it insurance premiums, holiday funds, student loans, and pension pots.
Thanks to open banking, it is now possible to view all of your savings in one place on platforms like Moneyhub. No matter how many banks you have spread your savings across, you can gain a 360-view of your finances and control them through the same tool. With greater control over their money, UK savers are finally in a good position to improve their long-term financial health.
Digital technology has transformed almost every aspect of our daily lives; from the way we talk to the way we travel, eat, shop and do business. The proliferation of smartphones and subsequent cultural shift to an on-demand society has even influenced the way we view our health.
As the costs of traditional healthcare continues to soar and plague governments around the globe, the price tag of digital technology drops by the day, offering an obvious solution to the problem. Thanks to the development of digital health platforms and remote monitoring apps, people are increasingly turning to the myriad of services that allow them to self-manage their health and wellbeing, alert professionals to changes in their condition and receive efficient, cost-effective support at the drop of a hat.
According to a Salesforce survey, 6 out of 10 millennials support telemedicine, such as video chats, instead of in-person visits. Even more respondents stated their preference for mobile apps that could allow them to book appointments, review health records and manage their preventative care, while most were happy to consider wearable devices that share health data with their doctors, as well as pills that track vital signs once swallowed.
These findings serve to illustrate the shift in attitude and behaviour that has taken place with the younger generations in particular. Given the chance to take their health into their own hands via digital monitoring platforms, millennials are happily obliging. It’s hardly surprising - after all, they have come of age in an era where everything is available at the tap of a screen, and as an age-group that some have dubbed the most stressed generation, it’s no shock to see them turn to the digital solutions available to quell their health anxieties.
Having witnessed the digital revolution of the healthcare sector, finance and savings would be wise to follow suit. Taking a page from the digital health solutions book, the finance industry can learn lessons from the move towards self-management in healthcare to make finance something that people engage with daily, are committed to and find motivating.
While it still may be early days for open banking in the UK, regulatory activity has spurred a thriving FinTech industry and given way to a first generation of open banking solutions that allow users to securely share the information with whoever they chose in order to receive a 360-degree view of their finances. With access to both current and savings accounts, such platforms could completely change the way all of us interact with our money and support our financial wellbeing by providing us with an on-demand solution for both short and long-term money management.
Just like video-chats have gained momentum for younger patients, the idea of visiting a bank branch is an antiquated thought to most millennials. If health can be managed digitally, 24-7 real-time access and service from financial service providers is something that consumers have come to expect; performance for these organisations is measured not by the service of their physical branch but their self-service capabilities.
Technology has inspired a shift in attitude with regard to the way people view their health; it has put personal health monitoring into the palms of our hands and inspired us to live healthier lifestyles through real-time progress tracking. As a result, Millennials and Gen Z are more engaged with their health than any previous generation; their need for instant information disrupting the provision of healthcare to enable individuals to take control of their health and wellness at the tap of a screen instead of a trip to the doctor.
Indeed, recent research into this subject found that health apps and wearable devices have acted as tools for Millennials to improve their own health, with adoption rates among this generation far outpacing older generations (27 percent app, 8 percent wearable compared to 12 percent and 4 percent) When surveyed on what they would like to see from health-tech tools in the future, the main theme for Millennials was centralisation, integrating self-generated health data with that of the information held by a range of providers to allow ubiquitous access from a single location.
This highlights a wider trend in the demands and expectations of younger generations: technology has enabled them to track their health at a granular level and track progress in real-time and, as a result, they are empowered to take action to improve their diet and lifestyle. Wellness has become a daily, active pursuit for millennials; they are eating healthier and exercising more than previous generations. On the flip side, attitudes towards finances remain much the same, and while some are taking advantage of new platforms to manage their money, most still see their bank account as something to ignore until payday.
The positive, proactive attitude that young people have towards their own health cannot be carried over into the world of money management, however, until key players in the finance sector embrace the potential of technology and regulatory change to transform how we view and manage our savings.
Just like healthcare practices, banks and financial service organisations are under mounting pressure to reduce costs and improve service quality. And, just like the healthcare industry, a similar opportunity exists in finance to transform the user experience and revolutionise the way people manage and view their money. If finance took the same approach, people would undoubtedly feel more connected with their money.
Given the ability to view their spending behaviours, incomings, outgoings and savings all within the same place, users would be inclined to make positive changes to the way they spend and save. While more needs to be done to educate the market on the benefits of open banking, the development and proliferation of such products and services is certainly a step in the right direction.
Understanding the big picture, and taking all elements of an individual's circumstances into account, is critical in making good financial decisions. Yet, when it comes to planning for retirement – arguably one of the most significant financial decisions – most of us tend to think about our pensions as entirely separate to other assets we may own such as property and savings.
It’s not hard to see why: for too long, pensions have existed in a silo of their own. Perhaps it’s failure by design; the traditional way in which financial advice products are set up focus too much on making people experts in specific investments instead of looking outward to interlink with other products. With regard to pensions, the industry has designed products and services that are too narrowly defined.
Meanwhile, the profusion of specialists in finance has caused the sector to split off into separate islands, with pensions so far a-drift that consumers are simply unable to view them within the same landscape.This, coupled with a series of stringent regulatory requirements, has seen the industry lose sight of the way in which pension policies connect with the wider savings ecosystem.
In some ways, the silo-approach is understandable. Considering the complexity involved in advising in fields such as investments, mortgages and pensions, it takes time for specialist advisors to gain the appropriate qualifications and undergo the relevant training to be able to advise on these specific subjects. Specialisation may be at the heart of enhanced productivity and improved efficiency, but it can also lead to tunnel vision, whereby neither advisor nor consumer can foresee blind spots until they materialise.
Take property, for example. According to recent research from Retirement Advantage, over-55s in the UK could now access a cumulative £375bn in housing equity – this rose by £2bn just in the third quarter of this year (a 2.7% increase), and in some areas of the country the increase was nearly double this, with the East Midlands up 5.1%, the South West up 4.8% and the West Midlands up 4.6%. Meanwhile, research from SunLife found that four in ten of over 55s of are worried the money in their pension may not be enough to cover their retirement and are looking for alternative ways to increase their income in retirement.
This research clearly shows that people across the UK who own property either outright or with a mortgage are likely to have equity in their homes which they can tap into for retirement, and yet the silo-effect of the pension sector means the question of accessing this wealth may not even be raised. Even if a client has no intention of selling their home or downsizing, advice that identifies all options by looking at the bigger picture surely leads to better client outcomes.
Over 55s may be asset-rich, yet as they approach retirement, it’s apparent that they are concerned the funds in their pension will not be able to support them. With the increasing need to serve a growing population of older homeowners, the pension industry and financial advice in general must evolve to help retirees make better decisions. In light of this, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (Imla) called on advisers to "break down the silos" between pension and mortgage advice after figures from the ONS revealed UK homeowners were ageing faster than the wider population.
Perhaps the problem is not with specialisation, but the by-product it has created in silos of data and silos of how products are discussed. With each respective financial services provider holding on to their own piece of the pie, the consumer must hop between organisations or even between separate departments of the same organisation to get a full scope of their financial situation. In either case, the result for each advisor is a disconnected view of the customer.
We as an industry have a responsibility to provide clients with advice that keeps their best interests at heart, but how can we achieve this if half of the puzzle pieces are missing? The advice we deliver is based on the data we can see; consumer decisions are based on the advice they receive from their separate advisors and so the fallacy that pensions are a separate asset is perpetuated and the cycle continues.
Fortunately, there is a chance that a change in attitude within the savings culture could see the silo approach slowly coming to an end – or at the very least, face disruption from regulatory change and the new market entrants that come with it. According to rules set out in the retail distribution review and the mortgage market review, advisers can only be confident of giving the best advice to their customers if an assessment is completed that covers all elements of a client's wealth, including their plans for the future and their relationship with risk.
With the introduction of game-changing legislation set out in PSD2, the pensions industry stands on the cusp of revolution in the way that consumers interact with their finances and manage their pensions. Open banking data could be the catalyst that sparks industry collaboration to bring about connected customer insights to the benefit of both financial advisors and consumers. While there are still uncertainties as to when the long-promised pension dashboard platform will launch, innovative solutions that bring customer data into one place can provide consumers with an interlinked view of their financial assets.
Collaboration will be the key to empowering consumers to make better decisions now and in the future; mortgage brokers and retirement planning advisors, for instance, should be working together to determine all the investment and pension options that could benefit a client.
Through increased industry collaboration, financial advisors in every specialism gain deeper insight that enables them to enhance their customer experience and provide well-rounded advice that takes into account all the elements at play. Clinging to silo-mentality, on the other hand, will only hold us back from evolution and prevent customers from getting more from their pensions.
If its transformation we want and client satisfaction we strive for, we need to start thinking about the consumer as a whole, acknowledging their wealth for what it is: a web of multiple accounts, assets and liabilities that connect to create a unique financial profile. By breaking down the silos that constrain the pensions industry, we can support individuals to manage their financial futures better by putting them back where they belong: at the heart of the advice process.
Open Banking is changing the way people interact with their finances for the better. It’s no longer justifiable that managing investments, pensions, debt or daily spending is so complex. It’s even easier for businesses to connect with their target audiences and provide them with a more personalised service: capitalising on deeper insights surfaced automatically to help people manage their finances more effectively.
Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, from 14th to 20th of May, is Mental Health Awareness Week. This year’s theme is a theme we’re all more than familiar with: Stress.
In the UK, 85% of adults experience stress regularly, with the leading cause of stress being money. With over a third of Brits experiencing stress for at least one full day a week, it’s clear the issue of financial worries in Britain need to be addressed and rectified.
Whether you want to create your own solution, or you want us to do it for you—we have the technology for it. Our experienced team is here to support you now and in the future.
