Debi O'Donovan 2013

I am finding myself being slowly drawn in to the competition, even though I get bored stiff at the thought of spending 90-plus minutes watching 22 men run around a field for just a couple of goals (if they are lucky) for all their efforts. I am about as interested in the World Cup as most people are in pensions.

But my competitive side definitely felt a flutter of excitement when Chile beat Spain this week, after picking Chile in the office charity sweepstake draw.

I fear there is no such remedy for those similarly uninterested in pensions.

Yesterday I watched a few demonstrations of wealth management platforms aimed at the consumer market. The Top Gear 3 event’s organiser’s, The Platforum, rightly pointed out that many were less than consumer friendly.

Clearly a lot of effort (and money) is being invested by the technology developers, but the interfaces are still worlds away from the simple, easy-to-navigate portals we are now all used using to via our mobile devices.

A number of clever pensions communication specialists are using gamification and fun images to improve the experience, but no one has quite cracked it when you get down to crunching the details and numbers into a portal.

Who will be the Steve Jobs of the pensions world to show us a more stylish way of doing things? Right now, I would probably prefer to watch the next round of football than spend too much time managing my workplace savings online.

Debi O’Donovan??
Editor??
Employee Benefits

Twitter: @DebiODonovan