Global professional accountancy body The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has engaged its employees with retirement planning through a pensions roadshow that addressed their changing needs as they approach retirement.
The roadshow, which was offered to all 850 ACCA UK employees, took place across its offices in September 2019, and consisted of tailored presentations by pensions provider Aegon. The first of these focused on employees just starting out on their pensions journey, while the second session was for those already saving into a pension and looking at ways to build their investments, or who are thinking about planning for the future. The final presentation was targeted at employees approaching retirement, providing guidance about what they need to be thinking about as they prepare to take their pension.
The presentations were available to all employees, but ACCA made it clear that they were targeted to specific points in an employee’s life cycle.
Steven Doyle, benefits specialist at ACCA, says: “We did have some employees coming along to all three, and we didn’t restrict it based on age. We gave guidance to say, ‘this is the target audience’, and gave them some hints and tips beforehand. It was up to the employee which one they wanted to go to.”
While the roadshow specifically aimed to improve staff engagement with, and knowledge of, the pensions options available to them, ACCA further supports employees at different life stages with a financial education platform, provided by Nudge.
This programme, introduced in 2017, enables employees to access impartial, personalised guidance based on their life stages and personal choices. It also provides access to financial planning tools to help with matters such as budgeting, borrowing and saving.