Mercer Retirement Services

Pension freedoms gave defined contribution (DC) pension plan members more options about how and when to access their funds.

But greater freedom has created extra complexity that can lead to bad decisions, even when members have guidance.

Financial Conduct Authority figures show:

Two-thirds (66.6%) of members accessing their pensions for the first time do not take regulated advice to support their decisions.
56% of all pots are cashed in entirely on first access, when leaving some funds in the pension might have led to better investment returns and a lower tax bill.
40% of people drawing down from their pension pots do so at a rate of more than 8%, meaning their money will run out too soon.¹

Many pension schemes are struggling to keep up with ever changing legislation and digital innovation. This can leave members without the level of support they need to make informed decisions about their pension savings.

Mercer Retirement Services addresses these issues by offering a comprehensive range of options to help members plan effectively, sustainably and with flexibility if required.

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Hi. I'm Phil Parkinson and I'm the UK Wealth Leader for Mercer. We're on a mission to make retirement planning easier by providing hundreds of thousands of people across the UK with access to the support they need to make better decisions at retirement.

When it comes to retirement planning, people are expected to navigate and understand the complexity of retirement products, tax treatments, income longevity and more. And it's too much for most. And bad decisions can be made, with alarming data showing people are accessing their benefits at unsustainable rates whilst often paying more tax than is necessary.

That's why we've introduced Mercer Retirement Services, a comprehensive range of solutions to help people try and make the best decisions for them and their savings. Mercer Retirement Services offers your members direct access to guidance and advice options. It gives them the tools and support to help make better choices on how and when to access their pension savings.

Your members can choose from an income drawdown arrangement within the Mercer Master Trust, allowing them to access their savings as and when they need it, access to a financial advisor to help create a personalized retirement plan, and market leading digital advice through our new service, Destination Retirement, which helps people to plan for retirement by looking at how to use all of their different pots of savings in a tax efficient way.

We believe that for many, the best way to achieve great outcomes is through affordable and accessible financial advice. And that's why we're the first to provide fully regulated digital advice to employees across the country. Destination Retirement is free to register, factors in holistic wealth, and creates a tax optimal plan to put in place. It opens the door for more members than ever before to receive fully regulated financial advice at retirement.

We've already seen fantastic take up of Mercer Retirement Services and we're pleased to be addressing the retirement planning challenges faced by so many people across the country, in some cases, helping them to get their hands on tens of thousands of pounds more to help fund their futures.

We're passionate about creating better future for members and we'd love you to come on that journey with us.

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Helping your members meet the retirement challenge

Mercer Retirement Services offers your members a range of options:

Income Drawdown

Income drawdown for people who wish to access and manage their pensions savings on a flexible basis.
Digital retirement advice

Mercer’s Destination Retirement service offers affordable, fully regulated digital retirement planning and advice.
Fully supported advised solution

An in-person advice service for people with more complex financial needs or larger pension pots — covering decision-making, consolidation, implementation and review.

Income Drawdown
The service
- Robustly governed income drawdown via the Mercer Master Trust
Who this might be right for
- Members who have the confidence to make decisions without advice.
- Members who are looking for a drawdown-only solution for their pension savings
Fees
- There are no charges for setting up the drawdown account. Ongoing charges are deducted from a member's retirement savings to meet the costs of administration and investment. The charges depend on which investment fund(s) they choose
- Investment choices and charges
Fully supported advised solution
The service
- In-personal, holistic retirement and wider advice, including implementation of your bespoke retirement plan
Who this might be right for
- Members with larger pots (typically £350,000 or more)
- Members with more complex situations such as pension sharing orders
- Members who prefer in-person advice
Fees
- Fees are agreed with the member as all work is bespoke. For lump sum investments/pension transfer work the normal tariff is 1.95% up to £500,000 and the percentage tapers as the investment levels increase. Ongoing advice fees will apply
Digital retirement advice
The service
- Online retirement planning and advice service, that covers all your different types of retirement savings
Who this might be right for
- Members who want fully regulated advice at an affordable cost
- Members who are comfortable using an online service to model and generate a retirement plan
Fees

Annual ongoing fee
Between 1.17% and 1.20% depending on your circumstances. The fee is applied to the value of your investments and is made up of:
- Ongoing advice fee of 0.60% based on the value of the assets advised on.
- Platform charge of 0.35% per year for amounts held up to and including £250,000, or 0.20% for any assets in excess of £250,000.
- Discretionary portfolio charge of between 0.22% and 0.25% per year is applied based on the value of invested funds.
One-off annuity arrangement fee
If your plan includes a lifetime annuity (an income for life), there is a one-off arrangement fee of 2% of the purchase price. There are no ongoing fees for this product.

Informing your members about Mercer Retirement Services

We have a robust implementation process to help you introduce Mercer Retirement Services to your members. Once you have agreed and signed the supporting engagement letter, we’ll do the rest to put the services in place.

We offer a range of materials to help you promote awareness of Mercer Retirement Services and we provide links to include in your existing communications for retirees:

Member brochure
Member website
Posters
Postcards
Content for your internal channels

You can include these materials in communications such as retirement packs, member presentations and scheme websites.

Tried and tested

Mercer Retirement Services is already available through the Mercer Master Trust and we have seen take-up rise substantially compared to previous support models. For example, since Destination Retirement was introduced in 2022 there has been a 20-fold increase in member sign-ups for our retirement services when compared with a guidance-only option.

Signing up for Mercer Retirement Services

To find out how to offer Mercer Retirement Services to your members, please speak to your usual Mercer contact who will support you through the set-up process.

₁ _{Financial Conduct Authority’s Retirement Income Market Data 2021/22}

Contact a consultant

Are you helping your members try and make the best choices at retirement?

Pension freedoms gave defined contribution (DC) pension plan members more options about how and when to access their funds.

Helping your members meet the retirement challenge

Income Drawdown

Fully supported advised solution

Digital retirement advice

Informing your members about Mercer Retirement Services

Member brochure

Member website

Posters

Postcards

Content for your internal channels

Tried and tested

Signing up for Mercer Retirement Services

Talk to us

Are you helping your members try and make the best choices at retirement?

Pension freedoms gave defined contribution (DC) pension plan members more options about how and when to access their funds.

Helping your members meet the retirement challenge