Life Academy are working in partnership with Friends Provident to provide a new educational website which will show Friends Provident customers and pension account holders the logical steps that they need to take in order to plan their pension and retirement. The UK financial services group recognised the need to play a part in bridging the savings gap, so the website provides their members with:
- Life Academy’s Learn About Money educational programme to help people understand their finances and pensions in general
- Retirement planning tools, including Life Academy’s publication “Your Retirement” and information on Life Academy’s pre-retirement courses
- Tools such as what-if calculators and fund risk profilers that will help them once they are ready to plan their pensions
Learn About Money addresses the need for better financial education amongst adults, providing a bridge between basic money handling skills and the information provided by financial products and advisors.
Your Retirement is updated annually and provides a practical guide to planning for retirement. In addition to covering the obvious financial planning aspects of retirement, the guide also gives advice on how retirement can affect your relationships and health, as well as guidance on how to fill the extra 2,000 hours of ‘spare time’ that retirement can bring.
Jeremy Ward, head of pensions marketing at Friends Provident, said:
“This is about making financial education as easy and accessible as possible and encouraging pension scheme members to understand and take charge of their pensions. By playing around with their own pension calculations people are far more likely to get to grips with the impact of not saving enough or the effect of retiring earlier than planned. We want consumers to make informed choices about their finances and to plan properly for their retirement – now we’re making sure they are armed with the tools to do so.”
Stuart Royston, chief executive of Life Academy, commented:
“We were delighted when Friends Provident made the decision to work with us after seeing our Learn About Money material. They immediately recognised that there was nothing else available on the market of the same quality. Information is provided for members at different levels. Members can start at a very simple level, on budgeting, to understand if they are living within their means. Or they can go into a more sophisticated level to understand equities, for example.”
The site is educational only. There is no mention of Friends Provident’s products, nor is there any selling involved.
