It can be done!
So, how can we orchestrate a shift of focus that gives members a meaningful outcome – and at the same time address some of the gaps and disruptions that keep threatening the security of their journey?
As much as the individual is at the centre of all our thinking, we see the four main facilitating groups: the government, employers, financial services companies and the custodians of the members’ interests (trustees and unions), as the primary audience for these discussions.
To start with, we need to make it easy and rewarding for each of these groups to participate. What follows is a bit of ‘blue sky’ thinking that we believe could dramatically change the dialogue around their roles and what they can contribute.
We’ve termed the next ten articles our solutions. In some cases we may discuss a new set of underlying principles; in others, a new tool that could simplify a particular problem; and in others still, we propose ideas that we think have incredible potential, but only if they exist outside the financial services industry altogether. Together they represent ways in which we believe we can nudge the current system into providing much more efficient, effective and targeted outcomes.
As much as the individual is at the centre of all our thinking, we see the four main facilitating groups as the primary audience for these discussions.
We’ve tried to follow a natural sequence of thinking about how we could most effectively layout the journey for people and then deliver on it. This means starting where employees typically have their first interaction with a lifetime savings plan or with the concept of risk benefits; insurance products that protect their ability to earn an income.
Then, as we move on to monitoring and measuring an individual’s progress on the journey, we start to grapple with the issues around financial literacy, financial education and what it will take to start getting people to understand the impact of their decisions, and then to make the right choices.
We send these thoughts out there in the hopes of getting other interested parties to join us in facilitating what we believe can be important changes in thinking. All of them stand open to comments and constructive criticism. The important point is to continue the dialogue.