Standard Life enhances workplace Client Analytics tool to provide real-time insight on members' Retirement Living Standards

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• Real time insight for employers as PLSA Retirement Living Standards incorporated into Standard Life’s Client Analytics tool
• Significant development enabling workplace pension scheme clients using the tool to take positive actions that aim to improve member outcomes

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, has made a step-change enhancement to its Client Analytics tool with the introduction of new functionality that gives users - employers, trustees and advisers - unprecedented insight into the expected Retirement Living Standards (RLS) of their workplace pension scheme members.

The enhancement enables users to view what proportion of their scheme members are on track for a Comfortable, Moderate, Minimum income in retirement, as defined by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).

Launched in 2020, Standard Life’s Client Analytics tool is designed to help workplace clients get an even better level of scheme-based insight and understanding, to enable them to make decisions that aim to improve outcomes for their scheme members. 

Introducing the Retirement Living Standards enhancement for the Client Analytics tool, Craig Monahan, Head of Workplace Proposition at Standard Life said: “We are now able to answer the question that many employers, trustees and advisers want to know: what standard of living will my members likely have in retirement? We are excited about the potential this offers them to understand likely retirement prospects of pension savers and take action to help improve the outcomes for their members.  

“We believe this will fundamentally alter how our workplace clients understand and take action to support scheme members. The new PLSA modelling coupled with existing filtering functionality enables targeted communications with bespoke messaging which is more effective in driving member action.”

Standard Life has spent six months researching, data gathering and building the new functionality and user experience by modelling the data of over one million of its workplace pension scheme members to understand more fully the type of retirement they might expect to achieve. 

Using the PLSA’s updated retirement income targets as the basis of this development, Standard Life has bolstered its internal modelling to include a scheme member’s own Standard Life pension assets, the state pension and a proxy measure for workplace pension assets that may have been accumulated elsewhere. 

To meet the challenge of ensuring that the modelling remained consistent with the PLSA’s calculation basis, both organisations worked together throughout the development stage as the new modelling tool was fine-tuned and the user functionality enhanced ahead of its launch to pension scheme clients. 

Nigel Peaple, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the PLSA, said: “We introduced the Retirement Living Standards to support better saver engagement by helping people picture the lifestyle they want when they retire and to understand the cost. As more and more savers get used to seeing the Standards in the communications they receive from their providers, it is positive to see Standard Life innovate further by incorporating them into its Client Analytics tool. This will be beneficial in helping employers engage workers with their pension savings and transform the way people think about the way their saving habits today will provide an income later in their lives.”

Retirement Living Standards Output From Client Analytics:
Though the calculation basis is complex, the output generated for pension schemes has been simplified by distilling the data and calculations into easy to understand charts that provide users with a snap-shot of the expected retirement living standards for their scheme members. The charts show the proportion of members within each RLS band by geographic location, at a summarised level, and a more granular view broken down to annual income band. 
Further information about Client Analytics can be found on the Standard Life website
 

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Notes to editors

Client Analytics
The Standard Life Client analytics tool empowers employers and trustees by making it easy to turn data and insights into actions that will benefit their members.
The Client Analytics platform provides a simple, efficient way for employers and trustees to gain real-time insight of members’ activity within their pension schemes. Through segmentation and analysis, the tool can help identify trends and patterns of behaviour to highlight opportunities or concerns in a timely manner, and to help drive better outcomes for members and their future financial wellbeing. 

 
About Standard Life 
Standard Life is a brand that has been trusted to look after peoples’ life savings for nearly 200 years 
Today it proudly serves millions of customers who come to Standard Life directly, through advisers and through their employers’ pension scheme.
Standard Life is part of the Phoenix Group, the largest long-term savings and retirement business in the UK. We’re proud to be building on nearly 200 years of Standard Life heritage together
Our products include a variety of Pensions, Bonds and Retirement options to suit people’s needs, helping our customers to invest and save for their future. We’re proud to offer a leading range of sustainable and responsible investment options.
We support our customers on their journey to and through retirement with comprehensive, easy-to-understand guidance so they can invest in the right way for their needs, and plan a future they feel confident about.
The value of investments can go down as well as up, and may be worth less than originally invested.