Case study

My Retirement Planner

Pensions & benefits DB member engagement and communication

Clive Harrison Partner

The background

The trustees of this £5bn+ pension scheme came to us with an issue they wanted to tackle.

They wanted to give members access to all the information they need to be able to make informed decisions about their retirement from the scheme; and communicate this in a simple way.
They wanted to ease the burden on the administrator so that they no longer had to deal with speculative retirement and transfer quotations.
They were concerned about an increasing pattern of DB members transferring out of the scheme and around the quality of financial advice members were receiving.

Our solution

We worked with the trustees and the employer to design and deliver a one stop, interactive retirement modeller that allows members to view their own retirement figures and options as well as giving streamlined access to a specialist financial adviser appointed by the scheme.

It has delivered in three key areas:

Innovative and bespoke

Once a user logs on they can see a personalised display featuring all their scheme information including tax free cash lump sum, AVCs, bridging pension option, spouse’s pension and transfer value. Members including those still accruing benefits can also customise aspects using adjustable sliders so they can see at a glance how different options and retirement dates could impact their retirement income.
Clear communications

MRP has been designed to be visually engaging with a wealth of multimedia content including a series of short videos covering the options and the IFA. The pensions administration team reported improved efficiencies in members’ understanding and fewer requests for speculative quotes.
Broadening options

At the click of a button members can sign up to receive advice from the scheme appointed IFA.

The results

The success of the portal can be seen in the statistics:

In the first six months there were over 15,000 visits by 3,000 unique members with the average member having visited four times.
In the same period there were over 400 requests for financial advice online.
Average time on the site is c.25 mins with all areas being visited.
Administration quotations times reduced by 50%.

Wish my other pension plans were as simple to understand!!

Member feedback

Really informative and personalised. Information was very clear especially to someone who only understands the basics of pensions.

Member feedback

LCP developed a brilliant member retirement website for us. We’re delighted with the end product and particularly the flexibility of LCP’s approach and the customisation achieved for our scheme. The usage take-up has been above what we expected and we’ve had very positive feedback from members.

Pensions Strategy Manager