Pensions should not be regarded like bank accounts when they become open for cash withdrawals next year, the chief executive of Edinburgh-based Aegon UK has said.
Adrian Grace said the firm will next week launch an advertising campaign around a new retirement advice product, as the firm strives to build momentum for its pivotal online platform.
It comes with the pensions industry under pressure from the dramatic reforms which, from next April, will give over-55s the right to access any money purchase (not final salary) pension they have and turn it into cash at will.
"People should be thinking about the long-term in their pension planning and their Isas, and how that is going to give them a secure income in retirement," Mr Grace said.
"Bank accounts are very much a day-to-day activity so it's a bit misleading and not helpful if people start to see pensions as bank accounts."
He was reporting third quarter results for Aegon UK which showed a 13 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax earnings to £22 million, and 59,000 new customers as automatic enrolment continued.
The firm's online platform launched last year, which spans advisers, workplaces, and a direct-to-consumer retirement portal. It lifted its assets by a "steady" £400m to £2.4 billion.
The group said the average policy size on the platform was around £64,000, more than double the amount for the traditional book of pensions and bonds, adding that it expected "significant flows to emerge in 2015 and beyond".
The platform operations support around 180 jobs out of Aegon's 2,100 Edinburgh workforce. Three months ago Mr Grace said growth had been deliberately slowed in the second quarter while the system's 'back office' was being transferred from Bath to Edinburgh.
But on whether the Scottish headcount could grow long-term Mr Grace said: "Over time that will come down, everything is going to be automated and more efficient."
The platform's third quarter contribution to revenue was said to be "small but growing rapidly," with revenues up 17 per cent in three months. But Mr Grace admitted that the transition had now bedded down and acceleration was necessary.
He said: "We have built that infrastructure and we are looking for more growth and more scale now. There are 32 platforms in the market and we are the only one that has propositions across not only the adviser community but also the workplace and direct to consumers."
He said the imminent campaign would highlight a "dynamic" retirement advice tool, intended to complement Aegon's digital offerings.
"We are pleased with where we are in Q3." Mr Grace said. "We have got ourselves in a great position in terms of being ready for all the pension freedoms."
A Financial Conduct Authority director said earlier this week that people with pension pots smaller than £50,000 would be unlikely to get good value from being put into a pension company's drawdown plan. Standard Life's minimum size for drawdown is now £30,000, and Aegon confirmed that its minimum is even lower at £20,000. Mr Grace said the regulator's comments smacked of "nanny state where the FCA start dictating to people".
He went on: "That is not the FCA's role, it has a responsibility to make sure customers get good outcomes and we are very supportive of that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article