UK pension providers have researched cost and charges on comparable products in the market to ensure they represent fair value as a result of Consumer Duty.
According to Benefits Guru, financial advisers asked their pension providers if they found "details of members [who] may be incurring higher charges than is relative to the product" when completing their fair value assessments, the majority answered "no following Consumer Duty".
Benefits Guru also found that workplace pension providers achieved their strongest performance ever in the 2023 Benefits Guru annual workplace pension and auto-enrolment ratings.
Nine providers, including Aviva, Royal London, and Scottish Widows, have earned coveted "overall gold" awards for their workplace pension and auto-enrolment offerings. The standout performer of this year's ratings is Standard Life, which secured a clean sweep of overall gold awards and gold ratings in all sub-categories for both Workplace Pension and Auto-Enrolment Ratings.
Furthermore, the research showed that the majority of providers said they will update their value-based assessments yearly, with only two saying quarterly.
None of the providers have removed or discontinued any products following the fair value assessment process, while the majority said they have considered the existing cost of distributing their products.
The Finance Technology Research Centre and Benefits Guru founder and director Ian McKenna said: "In recent years we have seen some workplace pension providers significantly enhance their propositions. Others have done far less. Equally the pandemic has made it clear to employers that benefits is about significantly more than just providing a pension and life cover."
