A longer listen. 

Nathan Long, senior pensions analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, talks to Sam Shaw about the implications of pensions freedoms four years on.

In terms of innovation, Nathan stresses the industry already has two great products – drawdown and annuity – but advice and guidance around how to blend those two options together is needed.

He adds: “Drawdown isn’t the new normal as some people have said – stripping money out of your pension as cash is the new normal as half of transactions are people doing just that.

“The more we can get people to consolidate their pensions, and plan holistically, that’s when you are more likely to get people saying ‘well, I’ll secure a guaranteed income of this amount, and the rest is for drawdown’.

“However, we are hamstrung at the moment because until people really start consolidating, you are still going to get people stripping out their pots ad hoc”.