Pensions industry should use tech to sustain the savings boom
It has been a tough year for many, and experts agree that the economic fallout of 2020 has hit the self-employed particularly hard.
But among the bad news stories lurks a glimmer of hope from an unexpected source: the world of private pensions.
It certainly has not been smooth sailing – when Covid-19 hit, there was a sharp halt to pension contributions. New sign-ups to our own service dropped by a staggering 90 per cent in the first week of lockdown.
However, once the government announced tangible support for the self-employed, and the country began adapting to a new normal, we saw a rapid rise in their pension activity.
By July 2020, new account openings had grown by 300 per cent on that March low point, signalling a speedy recovery for the industry. Contributions and new accounts are now growing at a record pace among an audience that was once largely estranged from the world of pensions.
For some, investing in their pension has been a way to proactively combat uncertainty, topping up funds to safeguard future stability in the face of the unknown. For others, the pandemic has provided the time, opportunity and focus to take care of ‘life admin’, such as pension consolidation.
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