Why can’t we sell our pension contribution story better?

I can watch the wonderful discussion between Rory and Pensions UK and his subsequent speech on the final day of the Investment Conference last month.

Unfortunately  you can’t unless you have a Pensions UK password that can let you into their brilliant library of videos and slideshow.

With these slides you can explore how behavioural science principles like default settings, herd effects, and reframing can improve pension participation and investment decisions, transforming perceptions and financial outcomes.

Click “accept all” above to see the slides on slideshare. You’ve got there when you see this.

I will take one thing away from Rory’s talk and that was just how short we sell pension contributions to the millions of savers that Pensions UK’s members look after. Our job is to make people enthusiastic enough about the products we offer them that they defer pay from today to tomorrow (with tomorrow being sometimes 40 years away).

For Rory  (a behaviouralist) the incentive to get people saying goodbye to today’s pay is to offer up to 40% of the contribution back by way of tax relief. He may not have got this right (actuarially or from the perspective of an accountant) but he has the gist right. Saving into a pension where the deferred pay is boosted at outset , in the meantime and at the point at which money is drawn is a damned good deal.

I wish I could find a way to release Rory to you tube but I can’t! But if there ever was a reason for you to have him speak at an event you organise, may I recommend him!

This is a clip from the wonderful video if you can get there!