I’m sure I’m not  the first to be  bewildered by Aon delaying the launch of their workplace CDC plan till 2028. May I express my exasperation?

I had hoped we would make people’s life with CDC but here is a plan that makes pensions even more difficult to get the head round!

I have no idea how launching it within a DC plan is of advantage to anyone but Aon.  Here is a consultancy which offers DC advice to employers, a DC master trust to employers and help to ordinary people over their decisions. They will now be offering a CDC workplace pension and potentially a Retirement CDC pension. Lurking in the background is an Aon group personal pension (Big Blue Plan)  and the Aon Retirement Plan (with its Aon OnePlan), another DC scheme.

I can see why Aon have got themselves into a bit of a mess but they really shouldn’t have anything to worry about. They don’t have much to worry about, when it comes to the master trust hitting scale targets – it will with ease. By having the CDC plan within the master trust there may be yet more complexity for TPR to figure out but we are back to the world of hybrid occupational pension schemes. Oh dear!

I can see the sales pitch. It gives a large group of employers the opportunity to offer staff either a DC accumulation into a pot or the accumulation of a pension within a CDC plan. Some employers will offer access to both and give staff a choice. Some employees may choose to be in both DC or CDC plan at the same time, they may pay AVCs into one and have core contributions paid into another.

Here’s how Aon announce the move on social media

I hate to say I hate it. But the sound of it is exactly what consultants love and ordinary employers find confusing. Innovation is not necessarily complexity! CDC is part of a package of developments, it doesn’t even get exclusive promotion!

Employers will get a lot of pitching from their consultants before CDC arrives. Oh dear.

The CDC scheme will be “whole of life” but presumably at retirement it can accept DC pots into the  CDC and at retirement it could accept CDC transfers into the DC pot. There is talk from Aon that they will spend the interim considering having a Retirement CDC option in

All this will be strung out for another year, meaning that employers and unions who want to get on with it may now feel that they have to wait for the choices to be complete!

Of course for Aon this is fine as money is made whether employees become members of the DC or CDC sections of the master trust and there will be ample chance to offer advice to existing and future employers (and maybe employees).

Aon have been brilliant over CDC. When Bacon Woodrow, they gave us Kevin Wesbroom and now we have bright actuaries like Chintan Ghani and Jo Sharples, the CIO of the master trust will no doubt be excellent. Aon has consistently been one of the top DC plans employers can use.

But do we need to have such complexity? Can we not have a CDC scheme that employer’s can invest in now. I say this as a potential rival to whole of lives launching in 2026 and 2027. Kevin Wesbroom always kept things simple, can anything be more complicated for the working person than deciding what to go for.

A word on who is being authorised

TPR say it will take a maximum of 6 months to authorise a whole life (workplace) CDC. That would mean that Aon might not set about getting authorised till at least a year from now. WTW do not need authorisation till the back end of 2028. TPT may or may not have submitted for authorisation but they are joined by Adrian Boulding’s Arboretum and our Pensions Mutual to launch as early in 2027 as possible.

I have been promoting Aon as a worthy competitor all year. Here is my article promoting its Whole Life CDC arrival in May 2026. Aon have been promoting CDC as the way forward since 2023

It will be a lot longer than I or any other CDC enthusiasts had hoped to wait. The picture is from a report published by Aon in May 2023!

The reports of launches need to be accurate

This is how intentions are being reported (this one by Corporate Advisor)

Since Government started the legislative process to allow providers to offer multi-employer CDC, TPT Retirement has announced plans to also launch a CDC, with WTW saying it plans to offer a retirement-only CDC option via its LifeSight master trust, once the regulations for these are in place

Aon is now added to this list as if people will have their CDC as a “first wave” choice. Like WTW’s Retirement CDC, Aon’s won’t be here for years

Isn’t this a case of being lead by press departments not by reporting?