Scottish Widows launches mymoneyworks
Scottish Widows is launching a new online financial educational and guidance service for employees, which is available as an option with Scottish Widows Corporate Pensions proposition. The service, the first of its kind, allows employees to take control of their finances, helping them to make decisions with confidence, and enabling them to set financial goals and track their progress. This is also the first service that allows employees to track both their workplace benefits and personal finances through one secure personalised website. Users will be able to add details of their own savings and investments to the website and these will be shown on their homepage. The service can be available on a stand-alone basis or can be more closely integrated with other workplace benefits to give employees a greater appreciation of the broader benefits available to them.
Financial Planning
Scottish Widows' mymoneyworks was developed based on extensive research with consumers, employers and advisers. Scottish Widows identified the need to provide guidance around financial planning, focusing on the user's needs rather than products. Each user will have their own secure space, making the experience personal, and relevant to each individual. From here consumers will be able to monitor everything from their pension and life insurance to their savings and investments, all with a personally detailed budget summary. mymoneyworks also offers a Reality Check service which asks a series of questions to help users identify and prioritise their financial needs and find out more on how to address them. These educational journeys are supported by the skilled contact centre, which can provide more detailed guidance if needed. The site will also offer access to tax efficient products allowing a flexible and personal approach to savings.
mymoneyworks aims to improve employee engagement with workplace benefits, helping employers retain staff by highlighting the value of the employee benefits package being offered. This helps to reduce the strain on employers to reward employees with salary alone. It also assists employers in offering financial education and guidance to employees, which is very relevant in the current environment. The online service is supported by a telephony-based contact centre skilled in providing financial guidance to customers.
John Taylor, Market Director, Corporate Pensions at Scottish Widows, says "When we started developing mymoneyworks, we wanted to create something that would approach the corporate pensions market in a different way - starting with the needs of the employee. mymoneyworks is a great platform for employers to give their employees the ability to take control of both their retirement savings and their finances in general. Our research shows that people want to be more actively involved in managing their finances and mymoneyworks will help prioritise what may be needed in the short, medium and longer term. In addition, the annual Scottish Widows Pensions Report has consistently found that employee's value workplace pensions as a key benefit and our latest research found that 54% of employees believe it is an incentive to stay within their company so it is important that the value of workplace benefits are reinforced.
"We have ensured our customers are at the heart of the development of mymoneyworks, and the online service allows employees to manage their own finances day to day with ease and efficiency. With so many people still not preparing adequately for retirement, this service will help bridge the advice gap that exists in the workplace and enable employees to take better care of their financial futures.
"Good independent financial advice is the ideal but it is neither necessary nor economic to provide this to every employee in every group scheme. For those employees who don't have access to advice, mymoneyworks is the first solution looking to provide trusted and unbiased education and guidance, across a range of personal finance issues, through the workplace."