Malcolm Small has set up The Retirement Income Alliance, which he stressed was not “in any shape or form” a rival to Pension Wise, as it was described in one report. The aim is to help consumers take control of their retirement planning and show them what their options are.
Mr Small, (pictured), who was director of policy at Tisa between 2007 and 2014, said: “We do not want to rival Pension Wise, we want to work with it and the Money Advice Service. That (media report) was just completely the wrong end of the stick. We are different on two fronts, we will be much wider than just pensions, it’s about later life entrepreneurship and employment and other issues as well.
“It’s an engine which will give people the best possible choices to get their best outcome for retirement. Many people think they’ve got no choices but we think they have. We’re coming at it from an optimistic point of view.”
He said: “Nobody has done this before; this is literally like financial Facebook for people thinking about what later life looks like. It will be a membership-based community of people, in that sense it’s very similar. It’s a community, a forum, somewhere people can express the things that concern them.
“I’m a keen fan of social media, I’ve just started tweeting and I’ve used Linked In for years. My generation is definitely online and on social media, there’s quite a sea change in the way people expect to interact.”
Asked what inspired him to come up with the idea, he said: “Getting older myself I saw first hand the kind of panic people can get into thinking they haven’t got a great thing ahead of them.
“People almost get frightened and I wanted to do something to take away that fright, to say you are not stuck, you can do these things, you do have choices and can make things better for yourself.
“It was about taking away some of that fear. It’s trying to be positive and optimistic about what the future holds.”
There are 7.5million people in the RIA’s target market. Members will pay a ‘modest fee’ to ensure it remains independent and so it can avoid relying on advertisers to raise revenue. He hopes membership will reach six figures in two years.
The RIA is teaming up with the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners (NFOP). Mr Small said the two had realised they were ‘natural allies’ and not competitors.
Help for members could come in the form of shopping around for annuities for instance, he said, and being a consumer champion.
He said: “Where we see people are having issues with some of the rules and regulations and some of the ways things are done now we will campaign on their behalf, we will fight to make it right. We will not be passive and facilitating.”
Full launch of the RIA is being aimed at for April.