Tom McPhail of Hargreaves Lansdown comments:

The Association of British Insurers has today published a consultation on its Code of Conduct for its members relating to the pre-retirement communications issued to investors in Defined Contribution pensions.

The Pensions Income Choice Association (PICA) has played a pivotal role in championing the interests of investors and pressing for improvements to the retirement communications. Our goal is to ensure that investors are led through an effective shopping around process which will deliver good outcomes for them. We have worked closely with DWP, Treasury, ABI and other stakeholder organisations in looking at ways to improve the retirement process. This Code of Conduct comes as a direct result of PICA’s lobbying and consultation work over the past two years. This work will carry on into 2012.

As Chairman of PICA and Head of Pensions Research at Hargreaves Lansdown, I welcome the proposed Code of Conduct from the ABI. The Code will serve to:

• Simplify the retirement experience
• Emphasise the importance of shopping around
• Highlight the significance of enhanced rates for those who are eligible
• Ensure that all investors are led through in inter-active process prior to personalised quotations being issued

There remains considerable work to be done and whilst the Code will undoubtedly bring significant progress for pension investors, we have also identified additional reforms which we believe could further improve investor outcomes.

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