Adrian Boulding: Decumulation pathways in the digital age

Duty of care on providers

clock • 6 min read

The FCA wants to tackle the dangers of poor pensions to the non-advised and disengaged by offering investment defaults supported by guidance. How can we extend the concept in the ‘digital first’ age? Adrian Boulding explores the issues

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched investment pathways last year, to help non-advised customers as they approach the transition from accumulation to decumulation. The theory was to increase engagement in the range of options open to policyholders in the wake of pension freedoms and at the same time address growing numbers who had taken their tax-free cash and left the other three-quarters of the pot held in cash. During the last few weeks, we found out from one major UK self-directed investment platform, Interactive Investor (II), that only 5% of all its customers starting...

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