Pensions - Articles - Aegon comment on shelving of defined ambition

 On pot follows member: 

 “Aegon welcomes the Pension Minister’s decision to delay the implementation of automatic transfers until the completion of automatic enrolment in 2018. We believe this is the right decision given the volume of recent pension reform and the industry shouldn’t be distracted from the task of auto-enrolling millions of new savers into pension schemes over the next few years and implementing the new pension freedoms.

  

 “Aegon has long argued that the best way forward is the creation of an online pensions dashboard where people can see all their pensions, including State pension forecasts, and potentially other pension savings in one place. This has far greater potential to drive up customer engagement, while driving down costs over time when compared against an automatic transfer process.”

  

 On collective defined contribution, otherwise known as defined ambition:

 “Collective defined contribution (CDC) is incompatible with the recent pension freedoms so it’s not surprising the government has decided against it. Under the Dutch CDC model, where this idea came from, people can only receive their pension at the time and in the format set out in the scheme rules which clearly goes against the trend towards greater flexibility.

  

 “In addition there appeared to be very little appetite to implement a complex new form of pension scheme amongst employers who are focused on the successful roll out of auto-enrolment and giving access to the pension freedoms.”