NAPF 2015: Whitbread chief says trust in pensions 'lowest in my lifetime'
Constant government meddling has reduced confidence in pensions to a historic low according to Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison.
Speaking at the NAPF Annual Conference, Harrison said the sector had to put the consumer at the centre of everything it did to improve public opinion.
He added that the industry tended to talk to itself and use unhelpful jargon.
He said: "Pensions have always been hard for people to understand but the trust in pensions is probably the lowest it has been in my life time. Government really has not helped, but we need to do the best with what we have."
While auto-enrolment (AE) had been a success and surpassed Whitbread's expectations, Harrison warned the project could suffer if there was no way to aggregate small pots easily.
"I worry about people moving from company to company. Small pots will be eroded by admin costs, transfer charges and fees and people could become disillusioned," he continued.
The lesson from AE's success was simplicity and solid communication worked and this could be applied to other problems in pensions, he added.
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