Stuart Breyer urges that education and collaboration is more important than ever in these financial times.
We are in unprecedented times, and the pensions industry landscape is changing rapidly:
(1) Defined Benefit pension fund deficits continue to increase, and given our current trajectory, an entire cohort of the population is likely to receive less than they are expecting in retirement,
(2) For younger savers in Defined Contribution plans, many lack the financial skills to help empower them to make decisions they will need to achieve financial security in older age, and
(3) The political landscape has changed dramatically in the last few weeks, as there is uncertainty about what will be the top policy priorities for the Undersecretary of State for pensions, Richard Harrington MP.
Given this backdrop, education and collaboration have never been as important as they are today. Actively sharing knowledge, learned experiences and insights drives innovation and new answers to surface. Today's technology enables the pooling of ideas and insights in ways that were simply not possible ten years ago.
Crucially, technology eliminates the constraints of geography and time. As a real-case example, whilst on the ground in Nairobi, The World Bank can use a network such as mallowstreet to immediately 'tap in' to the UK market and ask for ideas on best practice, and receive valuable insights from an engaged audience. Can you imagine this scenario, even five years ago?
Technology, combined with the divergent thinking that collaboration facilitates, helps analyse and identify detail previously not possible.
The outcome of this combination will allow a wise crowd to generate great ideas, allowing solutions to be developed and introduced to the market, that will give us the best route to securing the retirement future for millions of individuals.
At the end of the day, pensions are about people: making sure that every member receives their promised pension in full. Everyone has a part to play in the solution, and we have one chance to fix it.
Some might call it absurdly ambitious, but by working together, we can solve this problem. Which piece are you able to help solve?
Written by Stuart Breyer, CEO, Mallowstreet.
