The introduction of pension freedoms in 2015 represented the most radical change the UK savings industry had witnessed for a generation. At a stroke, ‘at retirement’ consumers were given decision making authority to select pension products that enabled the drawdown of income whilst retaining investment control of the underlying assets.
However, the regulatory and taxation rules that govern income drawdown are highly complex and consumers face a bewildering set of choices. In turn, wealth managers have the challenge to design asset allocations that will simultaneously deliver the capital growth and income returns required to meet the retirement objectives of clients exercising their pension freedoms rights.
Delta’s purpose for joining Velocity Birmingham is to accelerate the build of iFreedom our digital mobile-first portal that delivers the full flexibility of pension freedoms straight into the hands of the consumer.
iFreedom is designed to seamlessly integrate with investment platforms that aim to offer a compelling advised or consumer-focused digital portal that will empower the customer retirement journey and drive operational efficiencies through self-servicing and straight-through processing. Critical to the operational delivery of income drawdown is the coupling of iFreedom to Platinum~Pro our cloud-hosted platform that manages the full life-cycle of pension administration and regulatory reporting.
Private pension savings now represent 42% of the £14.6 trillion owned by UK households (ONS: Wealth and Asset Survey, 2019). With household wealth now being seven times higher than GDP, compared to three times in the 1970’s it’s the over 45’s who have enjoyed the biggest gains.
Therefore, we firmly believe that leveraging Delta’s IFreedom and Platinum~Pro platforms will enable wealth and asset managers seeking to maximise the ‘at retirement’ opportunities to accumulate assets under management in the long term savings market.