Heywood
This article is the third and final part of our pensions dashboards series, created in collaboration with Richard Smith, an independent pensions professional and industry commentator. Richard has shared his insights throughout the series, helping us explore how dashboards will reshape the pensions landscape from launch through to the long-term future.
In part one, we looked at the ripple effect dashboards could have across the industry. In part two, we examined the emotional connection members will form when they first see all their pensions in one place. Now, in part three, we turn to the future.
What will dashboards look like as they evolve beyond their initial launch, and how might they become part of everyday financial life?
The UK’s first iteration
When pensions dashboards launch in the UK, sometime in the next 18 months to two years, it will mark the first iteration of a service that is expected to evolve rapidly. Other European countries that introduced dashboards years ago are already on their fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh version, each shaped by member behaviour and rising expectations.
Richard notes: “When I toured the five European countries with pensions dashboards, each one stressed the same thing; what you see at launch is not what the service looks like a decade later. Iteration is inevitable, because members will demand more.”
The UK’s debut version should be seen in the same way: a baseline for improvement, refinement and innovation, not the final word.
Changing behaviour and expectations
Richard highlights that user behaviour will be central to this journey. Members may not repeatedly log into a new pensions-specific service, particularly if it feels separate from their everyday finances. “If you ask someone to go somewhere they’ve never been before, they may not return very often,” he explains.
That is why he believes long-term success will depend on integration. “In future, people won’t log into a pensions dashboard as such. They’ll expect to see their pensions data in their banking app, alongside their other money.”
Future iterations could see pensions dashboards embedded where members already go, making pensions part of the same digital routine as checking a balance or making a payment.
Implications for administrators
This shift in behaviour will also impact schemes and administrators. If dashboards become a member’s first stop for information, the questions they bring back to schemes will be different. Members will expect clearer explanations, greater contextual support and faster responses to issues. Administrators may need to expand digital tools, FAQs and communication strategies to keep pace with new expectations.
As Richard frames it, dashboards are more than a compliance project. They’re a catalyst for schemes to rethink how they support members in a more transparent, data-driven environment, where the consumer, not the scheme, is king.
An evolving journey towards open pensions
The UK’s pensions dashboards will begin life as version 1.0, but they will not stay there for long. Each wave of usage, feedback and innovation will push the service forward, just as it has in other countries. The long-term prize is open pensions; a world where data, trust and digital innovation combine to make retirement savings as visible and accessible as current accounts.
That journey starts with the dashboards we are building today. They may look simple at first, but they are laying the foundations for a new era of pensions engagement that will benefit members, schemes and the wider industry for decades to come.
We want to thank Richard Smith for contributing to this series and for sharing his perspective on the opportunities and challenges ahead. This series has explored the ripple effect dashboards will have on the industry, the emotional impact for members as they reconnect with their pensions, and the exciting future potential of dashboards as the starting point for open pensions.
The UK pensions industry has a rare chance to learn from early adopters overseas and set a global benchmark for how pensions dashboards can evolve into an open pensions ecosystem.
You can read Richard's blog on his website dashboardideas.co.uk.
