Only two fifths of Brits know how to boost their pension, Lloyds Bank has warned. As a result, Lloyds Bank – which is rivalled by the likes of HSBC UK, Santander, Natwest and more – has moved to launch Ready-Made Pension to make saving for retirement easier.
Just 42 per cent of the UK population know how to contribute more into their pension, according to new research from Lloyds Bank. Now, for the first time, savers will be able to choose a simple pension product that is tailored to their needs through their existing banking app or internet banking.
Ready-Made Pension is a digital-first product which has been designed to make saving for retirement simpler, whether someone is combining multiple pensions or opening their first pot. The new product will be available initially to customers who bank with Lloyds Bank, Halifax or Bank of Scotland.
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Lloyds has 21.5 million customers regularly using online banking, and around 7 million of them already check their pension using their banking app every week. Jo Harris, Director at Lloyds Bank, commented: “Pension saving can seem complicated and inaccessible for lots of people, but it is something we should all be doing as soon as we start working.
“We wanted to create a pension product that was genuinely easy to use, simple to access, and removed all the jargon which can often be so off-putting. Most people focus on managing their day-to-day finances like paying the bills and putting money away for a rainy day, so pension planning can sometimes be pushed down the to-do list. When we were developing our Ready-Made Pension product, we wanted it to appeal to those who are time poor and might not know a huge amount about how pensions work.”
The Ready-Made Pension default offering will have an annual account fee of 0.3% (or a minimum of £5 a month), ongoing investment charges of up to 0.24%, and a transaction cost of 0.14%. Ready-Made Pension is only available to Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers initially.
Customers can open a Ready-Made Pension with a minimum cash investment of £5,000 or set up monthly contributions from as little as £150 a month, and can transfer in existing pensions from £10,000 upwards.
