There will be a set of standards on how information is displayed, for example, but this must not be so prescriptive as to strip out innovation or to deal with sectors of society who have different needs.
It seems likely that commercial dashboards will eventually evolve to serve different markets, just as Waitrose, Lidl and Sainsbury’s target different demographics of shopper.
For instance, certain dashboards might target the more financially astute advised community; another the techy people who like to track things in real time; and a third for those who are not very interested or engaged in the retirement planning altogether.
A set of rules that ensures a level of consistency is more than appropriate, but they need to be flexible enough to allow a dashboards market to develop so it can serve the needs of different types of consumers. We cannot be all things to all people.
Although consumers will not be able to buy anything through a pensions dashboard, there could be sales and marketing opportunities for advisers during the consumer’s interaction with it.
We are currently seeking more clarity from the FCA on what will be allowed, but there should be scope to encourage people to delegate access to an adviser to view their dashboard and discuss whatever it reveals.
Because this would be an advised journey, it would be caught under advised permissions, so would require a suitably qualified person and as such harms are reduced.
In pensions administration, the cracks in an already creaking system will almost certainly be revealed when suddenly thousands or even hundreds of thousands of consumers are making enquiries about possible matches and transfer values.
Administrators that are not used to providing that information could soon be overwhelmed by a tsunami of enquiries. Even so, you can see how all this opens up new avenues and opportunities.
It could feed into the advice sector because advisers are going to learn more about their customers, they will find more pots they have not found before (and in a far shorter time period with less effort required), but only if the FCA allows a route within vertically integrated organisations.
Action points for advisers
We are expecting a reopening of discussions with the industry later this year in the form of guidance on the pensions dashboards programme’s connections to the central digital architecture.
When the FCA solicits feedback on commercial pensions dashboards, advisers must engage.
