Smart Governance supports pension scheme governance by:
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Replacing traditional complex and cumbersome reports with easy to understand online reports
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Helping a scheme’s governance committee and their adviser identify key areas that may need addressed
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Monitoring employees’ contributions and investment decisions to assess their retirement savings position
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Enabling targeted emails to encourage employees to review their retirement savings
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Measuring success of email campaigns in real-time and by creating follow-up reports
The system supplements information from Aegon with data from the Office of National Statistics and Experian to produce a digital report, detailing employee segmentation, financial data and saving/investment trends. This allows employers and advisers to compare the savings behaviours of a workforce against people of similar ages and earnings elsewhere.
As part of the analysis the system can generate interactive graphs to fully illustrate the position of employees. It can also be used to interpret data per scheme to benchmark member behaviour.
One of the key reasons employers could benefit from a service like Smart Governance is that it delivers best practice aligned to meet the Pensions Regulator’s six governance principles. The service provides employers with data and insight, suggests actions that they and their adviser can take and then enables them to communicate with their workforce.
Smart Governance is aimed at employers who have a workplace scheme with 50 or more members. It’s also suitable for advisers who have schemes with Aegon that meet the criteria.
Angela Seymour-Jackson, Managing Director, Workplace Solutions, at Aegon UK, comments:
“Good governance is a key element of great advice. Employers want ongoing support to help them look after their scheme and their employees’ savings. However, we know that the time and effort needed to deliver a quality solution can sometimes feel overwhelming, which is why we’ve developed Smart Governance.
“The beauty of Smart Governance is it puts insight and understanding in the hands of employers and gives them confidence to do everything they can to help and encourage their employees to prepare for retirement. The Pensions Regulator is interested in good governance through its six principles and we believe this service is a huge leap forward in the world of pension governance, and a first of its kind.
“Auto-enrolment and increasing use of Defined Contribution pension schemes have intensified the spotlight on pensions and highlighted the need for improved governance to deliver good member outcomes. Smart Governance helps employers save time, meet governance responsibilities, while providing a tool to improve member engagement, which should in turn help employees achieve the best possible outcomes from their work place pension savings.
“Aegon believes technology is essential to empowering people to take control of their financial future and this is our second major technology announcement in recent weeks. In March we announced that we would be extending the Retiready interface and tools across our workplace proposition. As a result, workplace schemes will soon benefit from a simple online pension, they can manage on a mobile or tablet which helps them keep track of how ready they are for retirement.”
Amanda Willis, Pensions Manager, Peel Ports Group said:
“Aegon’s digital Smart Governance service will provide ease of access to important statistical and analytical information, along with the ability to produce targeted communications at the touch of a button.
“This reduces administration time thereby enabling more time to be spent on the key issues surrounding the governance of the pension scheme. The Governance Committee to the Peel Ports Group Stakeholder Pension Plan has worked really hard to deliver what we believe is best-in-class pension provision, which has been recognised by the National Association of Pension
Funds when they gave the Stakeholder Plan the PQM PLUS award. Aegon’s new digital Smart Governance service further enhances the quality of the Stakeholder Plan and ensures it remains best-in-class.”
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