Hargreaves Lansdown

Helping people make better decisions about their pensions.

Sectors: Financial Services. Year: 2024

Together with the team at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), we created a new online journey, to help their clients choose how to take money out of their pension.

We purposefully slowed people down and helped them consider their options.

That led to more clients making better financial decisions. And it saved HL money too.

Outcomes

After six months of going live:

  • Online applications are 60% higher than paper based applications
  • Compared to the existing paper-based journey, 83% more people decided against withdrawing all their tax-free money in one go. This shows people are considering their options more. 
  • 62% reduction in errors that needed help desk support

The problem to solve

As you approach retirement, you need to decide what to do with your pension savings. The options are complicated, and they affect the amount of tax you pay, how much your savings grow, and even your spending behaviour. And, there’s no going back on the decision.

But the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had industry research showing many people weren’t fully considering these things.

People can take 25% from their pension pot, tax-free. But they were taking it out all in one go.

They were unaware that they could choose to take the tax-free money in stages. A choice that would leave more money growing in their pension pot.

So when HL wanted to create a new online pension-decision journey, in addition to the existing paper-based one, it was an opportunity. An opportunity to help clients understand the impact of their choices and get the best outcomes.

What we did

We created a new online journey to help people decide what to do with their pension.

Our approach

We formed a team with HL, including researchers, designers, developers, pension experts and more.

We spoke to many people approaching retirement about their needs, questions and concerns. And we prototyped multiple versions of a new journey, testing each version with customers. Later versions even used people’s real pension data.

This gave us confidence that the new journey was working.

A prototype we created for testing purposes, using pension data.

Positive friction

We found making the journey too easy would be the wrong approach. Instead, we introduced the concept of ‘positive friction’ to slow people down at key moments so they would consider the consequences of their choices.

For example, we checked that people understood they didn’t have to take their tax-free cash all at once.

An example of ‘positive friction’: checking people understood they can take their tax-free cash in stages. Design created for testing purposes.

Just-in-time information

Our research also showed that people could be overwhelmed by too much educational information.

Instead, we also added “just-in-time” educational snippets. These included calculations to show the impact of decisions. For example, we showed what people’s monthly income would be if they took all their tax-free cash as one lump-sum.

Monetary impact

We also helped clients understand the impact of their choices by using different calculators. People could see how their financial situation would change, before committing. One calculated retirement income. Another showed how taking less tax-free cash now could mean more later.

One of the calculators we linked out to.

Outcomes

Our user research showed that our designs helped people make considered decisions:

It focuses the mind, I know things now that I didn’t know before

Research participant

I like that it challenges you to check you’ve done the right thing

Research participant

Analytics data showed the same:

  • Compared to the existing paper-form, 83% more people decided against withdrawing all their tax-free money in one go. Instead they are taking it in smaller chunks, leaving more money to grow in their pension pot.
  • People were using the supporting tools to increase their understanding. 

There was concern that slowing people down would result in more calls to the helpdesk. It had the opposite effect: 

  • Online applications are 60% higher than paper based applications, reducing workload for the helpdesk.
  • There was a 62% reduction in error rates, also reducing helpdesk workload.

And so, the new journey is helping people make better financial decisions, and saving HL money.

People taking tax-free money in stages

83% Higher online, compared to the existing paper-based journey.

Online applications

60% Higher than paper based applications

Error rates

62% Reduction

What was a particularly painful process for both clients and Helpdesk agents, is now a clean and simple journey that will lead to better conversations, greatly reduced call times and improved colleague NPS

HL Pensions helpdesk team leader

From the very start cx helped us by asking the hard questions, challenging our assumptions and preconceptions […] They quickly became a valuable part of the team, and helped us build and embed capabilities within our own teams – leading to a great outcome for us and our clients.

Tom Moss Head of User Centred Design, Hargreaves Lansdown

Learn more about Hargreaves Lansdown

Stu Charlton

Reach out to Stu Charlton

Strategic Director