Nucleus Financial Platforms, one of the UK’s leading, independent, adviser platform groups, launched the UK Retirement Confidence Index in November.
The comprehensive study, the first of its kind, involved surveying more than 2,200 UK adults aged 50 and over by YouGov. It’s based on responses to the central question of how confident those approaching or in retirement feel about having enough money to live on for the rest of their lives.
Research and Insight
The lang cat carried out the adviser and planner research interviews. We questioned advice professionals drawn from both our own adviser panel as well as the Nucleus Advisory Board. Our panel consists of more than 1,300 advice professionals representing a cross-section of firms and role types. Questions were structured around some key data findings to capture reactions, opinions and insight.
Retirement Confidence
Retirement confidence is complex with many influencing factors, both positive and negative. Through the report, these are looked into in detail for a truly granular picture of consumer sentiment. The primary considerations are whether respondents have taken advice and/or accessed their pension savings. But the role played by other factors such as gender, pension type, having a plan and financial position is also examined.
The index score is a number out of 10, where 0 is not at all confident and 10 is totally confident.
Findings
- The report reveals the confidence index is 6.9 out of 10, with a negative outlook.
- Although this ‘score’ is higher than some might have predicted, there’s detail that indicates underlying sentiment points to challenges ahead for some groups of people who are less confident than others.
- Planning significantly affects confidence. Just over half of respondents (51%) have a detailed plan for retirement. Only 20% have their plan in writing, but this doesn’t seem to affect confidence (8.1 vs 8.0).
- Those without a detailed plan have the lowest confidence (4.6). These results clearly indicate that planning is a key driver to people feeling positive about securing a rewarding retirement.
- But despite the power of planning, half of UK adults (49%) approaching retirement don’t have a detailed plan in place.
One of the most interesting findings in the report is that advice itself does not seem to have a material impact on the confidence of those people approaching or in retirement, though it is slightly higher for advised customers at 7.0 compared to a confidence score of 6.8 for those who have never taken advice.
This paper is free to download thanks to the generosity of Nucleus.
