Pension professionals should take proactive steps now to deliver guided retirement solutions aimed at helping savers make the right choices.
In a joint podcast, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) say the industry needs to develop a much deeper understanding of the diverse needs and profiles within their scheme membership to ensure savers make the right decisions at retirement.
Nike Trost, the FCA’s Head of Department - Asset Management and Pensions Policy, and Patrick Coyne, Interim Director of Pensions Reform at TPR, call on the industry to innovate in the design and delivery of retirement income solutions tailored to different saver types.
They discuss how the FCA’s Targeted Support proposals – designed to allow firms to make specific recommendations for groups or cohorts of consumers around pensions and investments – and the Pension Schemes Bill plans for guided retirement solutions are complimentary policies.
And they urge trustees to respond to the FCA’s consultation on Targeted Support.
The podcast notes that using data such as age, pot size, and retirement proximity is essential to deliver tailored communications, targeted nudges, and fit-for-purpose decumulation solutions.
Patrick Coyne said: “Millions could be drifting toward an uncertain retirement. Government data shows over 14 million people are under-saving for later life. That is why we have to make sure the system provides them real value for money and that people are supported into the right retirement pathway for them. Nobody saves into a pension expecting a pot, they expect a sustainable retirement income and with these reforms, and the revived Pensions Commission, we have a real chance to make that happen.”
Mr Coyne said that with Targeted Support becoming a new kind of regulated activity, trustees should respond to the FCA’s consultation with examples of the kind of support they would like to give within the existing framework – especially ready-made suggestions for in-scheme benefits – to find out if this could be delivered themselves or with an FCA-authorised partner.
He added: “We know trustees want to support members, but uncertainty around the advice boundary is a real barrier. Now’s the time to share examples and help shape future rules.”
Nike Trost said: “I think there being more support available for consumers both in their savings journey and importantly, at the point of retirement, has to be the success we aim for. It’s about consumers being offered really good product choices to choose from in a really simple way.”
Listen to the TPR/FCA podcast, with a full transcript.
The FCA’s consultation, Supporting consumers’ pensions and investment decisions: proposals for targeted support, closes on 29 August 2025. It sets out proposals to that would give millions more people help navigating their financial lives with support on pensions and investments.
This would allow firms to offer a new type of help called ‘targeted support’ and make suggestions to groups of consumers with common characteristics. These could include people who may be currently drawing down on their pension unsustainably, not saving enough for retirement or who have excess cash sitting in a current account.
Targeted support seeks to support consumers in making these informed choices, while default pension benefit solutions (as part of guided retirement) seek to create a default decumulation option for consumers that do not or cannot engage.
The Pension Schemes Bill 2024-25 will implement Guided Retirement Options which will place duties on trustees to provide default solutions for their members, unless the member chooses to opt-out. The default will provide an income in later life, including consideration for longevity protection – which could include CDC provision.
The Government has revived the landmark Pensions Commission to examine why tomorrow’s pensioners are on track to be poorer than today’s and make recommendations for change.
According to the latest government data published in July 2025, around 14.6 million working-age people in the UK are under-saving for retirement. This represents 43% of the working-age population, measured against the Target Replacement Rate (TRR) benchmark, which assesses whether individuals are on track to maintain their standard of living in retirement. (Source: DWP Official Statistics – Analysis of Future Pension Incomes 2025 – Published 21 July 2025)
TPR is the regulator of work-based pension schemes in the UK. Our statutory objectives are to:
protect members’ benefits
reduce the risk of calls on the Pension Protection Fund
promote, and improve understanding of, the good administration of work-based pension schemes
maximise employer compliance with automatic enrolment duties
minimise any adverse impact on the sustainable growth of an employer (in relation to the exercise of the regulator’s functions under Part 3 of the Pensions Act 2004 only
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