Drawdown panel is now live

Employers and pension schemes can now offer full retirement choices to their staff and scheme members without adding governance or cost

The regulator’s five principles for accessing DC savings is adding pressure for action 

In November 2023, the regulator published ‘what good looks like’ for savers accessing their pensions: 

1. All savers deserve value for money - into and throughout retirement

2. All savers should be helped with decision making - in preparation for decumulation

3. Schemes should put the saver at the heart of decumulation - mitigating risks of savers

4. The market should innovate to provide genuine choice for savers

5. Savers should be supported - tailored and personalised pre-, at- and post retirement

Schemes under mounting pressure to support members with access to choice and good value are turning to a simple answer - deploy Guiide and its partners.  As well as single employer trust based schemes, Guiide and our partners are being used by employers that are in Master Trusts or have a designated GPP. 

For member choice, there is a range of Guiide partners covering all retirement options

Guiide offers access to a selection of drawdown products and annuities in any combination on an advised or non advised basis.  Supported via chat or email from experienced pension professionals, an AI tool for generic pension help and signposting to MoneyHelper.  Giving individuals the confidence to make right choices.

Members enjoy working out their retirement future in less than ten minutes with Guiide 

‘Enjoy’ seems the right word - On Trustpilot, Guiide is rated Excellent and people even say they ‘love’ Guiide.  Retirement is not just about DC pensions.  Guiide will cater for members with DB benefits pre-retirement or in-retirement taking income and anything else they can use to provide an income in retirement.  Guiide plans are not one-off - they remain live and can be tracked and reviewed at any time. Guiide holds someone’s hand throughout the whole of retirement.

Appealing to trustees and employers - no additional governance, no additional cost

The equitability of Guiide holds strong appeal for employers who care about all their current and former staff.  The choice to use any of Guiide’s partners is solely down to the member of the scheme (with the support of Guiide). There is no contractual link between the trustee or employer and Guiide’s partners.  Using Guiide requires no stretch of governance, and the service can be made available at no cost to the employer or scheme.

Guiide appeals to employers and trustees independent of the current pension provider

At- or post- retirement services and products were unlikely to be top criteria when a provider was originally selected.  If they do offer such, then it is even more unlikely they provide access to a range of providers on the market.  If the trustee or sponsor so wishes, we will signpost the current provider on the basis that they join the Guiide partner programme.

Guiide has searched and selected a range of drawdown providers for its panel 

We approached the market to discuss the panel with over twenty retail providers and Master Trusts.  The ability to on board an individual (without a sponsoring employer) digitally into a fully flexible drawdown arrangement was a basic criteria.  Disappointedly we found No Master Trust could offer such an option.  Therefore alternative decumulation options are currently limited to retail products only.

We have chosen three retail providers for our provider panel

Among retail products, we formulated a candidate list of ten who were all put through our cost comparison engine to understand costs at various fund levels and also to understand the range of investment options and default funds suitable for drawdown offered. We have now agreed formal arrangements with three.  

We take no referral fees from providers and advisers on panel

All our provider and adviser partners have a licensing arrangement with Guiide to use our technology.  In essence they pay for Guiide to promote their offering meaning the employer or scheme does not pay.  Given this, we are completely agnostic on the member’s choice on which provider to use (including using the current provider) or whether they wish to take advice or not.

Each corporate/employer would have a panel of three drawdown providers 

Consistently our research identifies that three is optimal in providing choice whilst not overloading individuals with too much information.  Each provider entry on the panel includes a short description of their product and services written by themselves and then reviewed by Guiide; the description is who their offering is aimed at and is factually based from public sources of information. 

The panel page can also show cost comparisons based on the actual member’s Guiide plan built (and all pots the member has) in actual £ terms.

We aim to make the transition to decumulation as informed and simple as possible

To make it evident that an individual has free choice, provider selection on the panel is close to what someone would experience if they went to any public site listing drawdown providers.  

Only with an individual’s agreement, we can, if wanted,  make their decumulation setup simpler by passing on the details they have provided in their Guiide plan to the provider.