LifeSight Digital Member Communications – Empowering Members

Across the evolving pensions landscape, employers and trustees face increasing obligations and challenges with member communications and engagement. Responsibility has shifted towards the employee who now needs to play a key role in building up their retirement savings and making sure they are aligned with how they wish to draw their benefits when they retire.

The Pensions Authority and the Central Bank have issued helpful guidance for trustees on how they can best support members on their journey. Their recommendations position the role of the trustee as one of a nurturer, guiding members to the knowledge they need to make the right decisions throughout their journey and nudging them to act at key milestones. LifeSight provides a consumer-grade member experience that engages, educates and empowers members.

The Member Journey

We know that one size doesn’t fit all. That is why we have created a suite of member communications that uses traditional and digital media to facilitate member engagement and nudge members to act when the time is right.

Our dedicated team of retirement communications specialists have mapped out the member journey from joining LifeSight all the way to retirement. Along the way, members receive nudges to take the various actions required to best maintain their LifeSight Account.

In the early years, members receive prompts to keep their details up to date, check in on their contributions and investments and read through the educational materials designed to help members understand how their LifeSight Account works and what key decisions they need to make.

As members progress through their retirement journey, they are nudged to consider the amount they are contributing, where they are invested and advised on the facility to make Additional Voluntary Contributions. From ten years out from retirement, members receive information on preparing for retirement, including details on their retirement options and how best to make sure their LifeSight Account is aligned to how they want to draw their benefits when they retire.

The LifeSight Account

The central hub for members is their online LifeSight Account where members can view and update their personal details, contributions, investment choices, beneficiaries and more. Through their account, members can also access My Bookshelf – a library containing interactive versions of all their member booklets and e-flyers with specific information about typical actions a member may wish to take, including transfers, making Additional Voluntary Contributions and more. Logging in is easy and members can do so across devices so they can stay connected to their pension and are empowered to make their retirement savings work for them.

eCards

Along with periodic standard eCards on maintaining their LifeSight Account, members also receive eCards triggered by certain key events such as 5 years and 1 year from retirement which encourage members to seek further advice.

eCards allow members to receive bite-size, targeted information through their email on any device providing them with information on specific topics and what actions they should consider. Links are provided to bring members straight to their LifeSight Account where they can carry out the actions with just a few clicks. Members can also subscribe or unsubscribe to the eCards, so they always retain control.

Interactive guides

LifeSight provides members with a suite of guides to help them to understand how their retirement savings account works, key decisions they need to consider and what they need to do to make sure their setting themselves up to achieve their retirement goals. These include a Welcome Guide Investment Guide, Pension Scheme Guide, and a Pre-Retirement Guide. The guides are all accessible through My Bookshelf.

Each guide has been carefully designed to be engaging and informative for members, with plain language, graphic representation and imagery used throughout. We’ve kept them short yet comprehensive. By breaking out the information across a number of guides, the aim is to target members with the information that is most relevant to them. For example, the Pre-Retirement Guide is made available to members 10 years from retirement and focuses on what they need to know and what decisions they need to consider.

All of the guides are interactive, so members can scroll through them or navigate by using the hyperlinks to jump to the information, including external sites on the internet.

We’ve been careful not to use technology for the sake of it – the guides are designed with the user experience at the forefront.

eFlyers

Individual flyers are also housed in My Bookshelf. These are concise documents giving members information on how to do specific actions such as how to make transfers or start AVCs.

Pension Calculator and Risk Profiler

The online pension calculator allows members to play around with different contribution levels including AVCs to see what their LifeSight Account could be worth at different ages. This cutting-edge technology empowers members to really take control of their retirement saving and plan for the future they want.

The Risk Profiler presents members with a short questionnaire to better understand the level of risk they are happy to take and what impact their choice will have on their retirement savings in the long run. Primarily this tool will help members to decide what strategy is best for them, whether it be one of the carefully created lifecycle strategies or the Self-Select option.

Together, these modelling tools help members understand the impact the decisions they make today on their future retirement income.

Setting members up for success

LifeSight Ireland has drawn together the skills and experience of retirement, administration and communications specialists to create a consumer-grade members experience that puts educating and empowering members at the forefront. We have leveraged the latest technology to put members in the driving seat on their journey towards a brighter future.

Robert Lane is a communication and change management consultant working in Willis Towers Watson Human Capital and Benefits. Robert’s focus is on retirement and reward communications, including employee and member engagement.

https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-IE/Solutions/services/communication-and-change-management