An integrated experience

Guided Outcomes provides an integrated experience for company pension schemes, helping employees better plan their DC retirement saving

Hymans Robertson, the UK's leading independent pensions, benefits and risk consultancy, has signed deals with three of the UK's largest pension providers to integrate Guided Outcomes (GO) with each of their proprietary administration systems. This will give DC scheme members access to GO's real time data on their DC pension pot saving and a better, more intuitive understanding of whether their retirement saving is on track.

Pioneered by Hymans Robertson, Guided Outcomes is a form of Defined Ambition launched in 2013. By keeping things simple, GO enables employees to set a target income requirement for retirement and then actively supports them to help stay on track to achieve that target.

Since launching, companies whose employees hold over £2 billion of DC pension savings have embedded GO into their schemes. Under this deal, the providers' corporate clients who also work with Hymans Robertson will be able to provide GO to their employees who are saving into the company’s DC scheme. GO will be available at no extra cost to members of these schemes.

Commenting on the deal, James Verner, Partner at Hymans Robertson said: 

The pension changes in the Budget have brought to the forefront how people plan for their retirement. Workers need to know what target pension pot they're saving for and how to achieve that goal. We’ve had a fantastic response since launching Guided Outcomes. Employers value this approach to managing their DC scheme, providing employees with a simple and engaging way to save for retirement. By building the important integration points between GO and the providers’ systems, we can ensure that employees can base decisions on up to date and accurate information. The next challenge is to help savers understand how to spend their pots most effectively in retirement, without running the risk of spending all of their lifetime savings too early.

Stephen Lefley, Distribution Director at Zurich, said:

Auto-enrolment is helping the UK tackle its huge pensions savings crisis by bringing millions of workers into a DC pension, many of whom for the first time. But just saving minimum contribution levels will not lead to an adequate retirement income.  Savers could be very disappointed when they reach old age and discover that they have not achieved their desired levels of savings. GO is a breakthrough that will give customers more awareness and control, which we believe will be a big step towards achieving their desired outcome in retirement.

Helen Buchanan, MD Distribution & Marketing of Legal & General, said: 

While the budget reforms have placed great emphasis on how people spend their retirement savings, there is still work to be done on how best to save in the pre-retirement years. Employees need support when saving for retirement. GO helps achieve this, setting out a journey towards retirement by establishing a clear goal on their desired retirement outcomes, and supporting them along the way to reach this.

Colin Williams, Managing Director Workplace and Intermediated business at Friends Life, said:

Friends Life continues to enhance its DC Workplace Savings proposition by progressing the integration of GO with our My Money Corporate Platform. The Friends Life Corporate Platform offers contract based DC pensions, New Individual Savings Accounts (ISA), a general investment account and early next year trust based and master trust schemes. New technology innovations which improve outcomes for customers in retirement by providing clarity and support are always welcome. We hope that by integrating our systems with GO our customers will increase their engagement with long term savings and be motivated to understand and stay on track with a realistic target for savings. Friends Life was one of the first providers to support corporate platform connectivity with external portals and this latest development highlights our continued commitment to investment in tools which support customers.