Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-term savings company in the UK which is part of Phoenix Group. They offer a range of Individual and Workplace Pensions, Bonds and Retirement options to meet people’s savings and investments needs throughout their life.
The challenge
Pension scheme members are often automatically enrolled into their workplace arrangement by their employer. They tend not to have much of a relationship with or loyalty to the brand, and as such, workplace pension providers generally see quite low engagement from their members. In fact, in 2020 the FCA found 59% of adults contributing to a workplace DC pension have low, or very low pension engagement.
Standard Life was looking at ways to support their clients, while also increasing member engagement with their pension information at a time in their lives when pensions may not be particularly high on the agenda. They understand that pensions are just one piece of the puzzle; if people don’t know where to start or lack the confidence to take steps in improving their financial health – clearing debt and building savings – they’re incredibly unlikely to engage with long-term savings for retirement.
Standard Life could clearly see the benefits of using Open Finance to build a financial wellbeing solution that would be more likely to engage pension scheme members, and started to work with us on what that could look like.
Standard Life considered connecting some of our APIs, but soon came to the conclusion that the quickest way to support members with a proven solution would be to white label our Personal Financial Management platform.
The solution
To build long-term relationships with their members and make them a more attractive choice for employers, we worked with Standard Life to build Money Mindset.
Standard Life understands that to encourage members to contribute more towards their later life savings, or consolidate their pensions, they need to help their customers understand their full financial picture.
Money Mindset was developed with four pillars in mind:
Solving day-to-day financial challenges - build a solution that helps people understand where their money is coming and going. Help people learn to budget through the app, look at trends in their spending and where they could save. Once people can see clearly how they are spending money, they can change their habits and start to save a little.
Help them save a rainy day cash fund - 34% of adults in the UK have less than £1,000 in savings. This puts people at a disadvantage when, for example, their boiler breaks or the car needs fixing, and they turn to high interest short-term loans to cover the cost. Standard Life wants to help people build financial resilience and set aside money as a buffer against emergencies.
Freedom to make choices - Now the tool has helped pay down debts and build a cash buffer, what next? Standard Life wants to help people understand their choices i.e., pay more into their emergency savings, pay more into their pension or invest elsewhere.
Am I on track for the future? - Once people are in control of their day-to-day finances, they can start thinking about the future; do I have enough to retire? What might later life look like for me?
Many pension providers focus on points three and four, but Standard Life understands that points one and two need to be tackled beforehand. With Money Mindset, members can bring their financial accounts and pensions together and see all their money in one place, helping them build healthy habits that could support their short and long-term financial goals.
With a library of bitesize content, tools, tips, and videos available in a few taps, Money Mindset can help boost members’ financial knowledge – without the complicated jargon. It can help members engage more with their pension and make more confident decisions with their money.
The results
Launched in June 2023, Standard Life is already seeing indicators of early success.
Around 50% of Money Mindset users have connected additional accounts, significantly higher than the 12% average reported by competitors in the market.
75% of users have opened nudges, indicating high levels of app interaction.
69% of users are actively using the transaction inbox feature
24% of users have used Pensions Finder
22% of user have visited the Content Hub
Insight to where customers hold products with competitors to inform strategy
There are significant growth opportunities available for businesses like Standard Life to come from supporting members at every stage of their lifecycle. By helping people build strong financial foundations, Standard Life has increased the savings and consolidation potential of their customers.
““Developing the Money Mindset app with Moneyhub has been a game changer for us in the market. Pensions are one piece of the financial puzzle, and by providing a holistic view of their finances alongside educational content and tools, we’re empowering our members to make smart and confident decisions about their money.
The expertise, technology and support Moneyhub provides has been invaluable in driving engagement and improving the financial wellbeing of our members, and supporting our clients. We are looking forward to working with them on our Pensions Dashboard offering”
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