Over 75 per cent of savers at L&G, Nest, and The People’s Pension fully pay out, but nearly all retirees at Workers Pension Trust, Smart Pension Master Trust, and Creative Pension Trust do so, according to a new report from Corporate Adviser.
The findings from the Corporate Adviser Workplace Pensions into Retirement report show that a sizable portion of people is taking all of their retirement assets as cash.
Unlike the FCA’s retirement income market data statistics, the findings also include millions of trust-based pension savings.
The report highlights that cashing out is essentially the only way users can access their pots at some providers, especially those prepared to welcome the surge of auto-enrolment savers.
Many people who have sizeable pots still access them without seeing a professional, running the risk of less-than-ideal results.
It finds that compared to existing pension providers, providers created since auto-enrolment are witnessing much more savers withdraw their whole balance as cash upon retirement.
Nearly all of the assets held by three providers, Workers Pension Trust, Smart Pension, and Creative Pension Trust, are withdrawn as cash when people retire.
At 84 per cent, Legal & General has the greatest percentage of total withdrawals among the life insurance companies, with at least 75 per cent of retirees entirely cashing out their savings at Nest, Cushon, and The People’s Pension.
According to the report, cash withdrawal looks to be the obvious departure plan for these groups since many AE-only savers are anticipated to have pots under £10,000 – active Nest savers had an average (mean) pot of £2,440 on 30 September 2020.
Providers have different rates of workplace pension savers beginning income drawdown. With 56 per cent of its retirees being drawdown customers, Hargreaves Lansdown has the highest percentage, closely followed by Standard Life at 53.7 per cent.
Of the consultant-led master trusts, Xafinity’s National Pension Trust has the greatest percentage of 34 per cent, marginally ahead of LifeSight’s 33 per cent, and Mercer Master Trust’s 27 per cent. Almost no members of the Smart, Creative, and Workers groups choose income drawdown while Nest is not permitted to provide drawdown to its clients.
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