A target pension is a proper outcome for four in five employers.

LCP head of CDC Steven Taylor said: “Our poll results were clear: member outcomes are the ultimate benchmark for success. CDC schemes will offer low and moderate earners in particular the security of a predictable income in retirement – without the complexity of managing investments. Compared to traditional DC, which prioritises flexibility, CDC can also deliver greater stability. Trustees and employers now need to ask: what matters most to your savers and members – certainty or choice?”

I was there on Tuesday – over 80% of people said they thought that outcomes were most important. What I found surprising was that so many wanted to know about CDC and that they saw CDC as a way of giving better pensions. The chat was intelligent and sensitive to the needs of people.

The poll of over 100 attendees at a recent webinar found most (79%) said it was “quite or very important” for sponsors, trustees and others to investigate how CDC schemes could help savers.

I am seeing the same trend at Pension PlayPen coffee mornings and my blog stats.

Steve Taylor told Professional Pensions

There is a “strong appetite” for collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes among stakeholders, a poll from LCP has found

I’m not quite sure how this has happened. CDC has not got any better since 10 years ago when it first became talked about in parliament (known then as defined ambition).

It may be that the Pension  Schemes Bill has made the kind of people that go to seminars understand what CDC does and that it does the required for their staff’s workplace savings.

But I think at the bottom of all this is that employers do not feel they are getting value for the money they are putting in their staff’s pots and that rather than doing that, they may be better putting money by so that they have pensions. Hence stated outcomes are more important than the flexibilities to choose the outcome. As Taylor says

Compared to traditional DC, which prioritises flexibility, CDC can also deliver greater stability. Trustees and employers now need to ask: what matters most to your savers and members – certainty or choice?

Here I find myself wanting to pinch myself that we have returned to a system where people know what they’re getting. It seems so obvious but I have never articulated to myself that that is what I want from my pension, that and of course value for money.

For a small number of us, the management of wealth supersedes the need for a regular  check payment in retirement. Small may be as much as 20% – which seems the opt-out maximum (10% is more the normal).

Today I will be going to two conference, one in Stationers Hall (beside where I live) and one in Holborn. I will continue to test the temperature of CDC’s water among those at these events. We will see if LCP’s numbers are an aberration but the first sign of consent that “pensions mean pensions”