Scottish Widows Workplace Savings Podcast

Over 60,000 employees have taken part in the Scottish Widows RetireWell Pension Education sessions this year with a big boost for Pay Your Pension Some Attention. In this episode, Robert Cochran is joined by Stuart Hopley to discuss exactly what pension scheme members are asking about their pensions, whilst delving into the success of the main Pension Attention campaign too.

The 2024 Women and Retirement report highlights the progress made over the past 20 years in narrowing the gender pension gap. This podcast reviews the key milestones reached in the past two decades, delves into this year's findings, and explores why further action is essential to fully close the gender pensions gap.

In this podcast, Robert is joined by two Scottish Widows colleagues, Rachel Proudfoot and Chris Smart, as they examine the world beyond workplace pensions.   In this episode, they discuss financial wellness, financial resilience, and some of the ways that young people, vulnerable customers, and policyholders alike can manage their finances.  

In this special, Robert Cochran is joined by ‘Mr Pension Dashboard’ Richard Smith, who has travelled the length of Europe by train analysing all that European pension dashboards have to offer. For the younger perspective, he is also joined by 20-something Oliver Webster as they discuss what the latest announcements from the government mean for pension dashboards– and just how big a revolution for...

In this episode, Robert Cochran is joined by Graeme Bold who has led the Workplace Savings Business at Scottish Widows for 5 years and overseen a digital revolution at Scottish Widows - growing the business to over £100 Billion of assets - whilst delivering best in class digital tools for scheme members and employers. We discuss his 5 years at Scottish Widows, his hopes for the next 5 years, pensi...

When you're the caretaker for £181 Bn of funds from 8.3 million insurance, pensions and investment customers, it’s both a massive responsibility and also an opportunity to make a difference. That's what we're discussing today with Eva Cairns, Head of Responsible Investment at Scottish Widows, and Adam Paterson, Investment Director. We’ll cover highlights from the 2023 Responsible Investment report...

In this episode I'm joined by Pete Glancy to review the 20th Scottish Widows Retirement Report. We look back at 20 years of this landmark report - I spread a bit of pension love and happiness through some of the really good stories in the research - Pete brings us back down to earth explaining the plight of those struggling towards a tough retirement.  Full report here https://adviser.scottishwido...

Can you gamify pensions? Of course you can! Just like learning, health, fitness and other areas of your life, gamification techniques are being applied to encourage better outcomes. In this fascinating podcast I'm joined by real experts designing gamification into the Scottish Widows Pension experience.

What can pensions learn from successful adoption of digital banking? For this episode, Robert Cochran is joined by our own Scottish Widows digital pension and banking guru Phil Allen and  a new to it all digital native Connor Strachan.  The discussion focuses on what pensions  can learn from the massive take up of digital banking, and what dashboards can learn from open banking.

What if you take away all the product labels and ask people what is important to them when it comes to funding their retirement and spending their pension savings? In this podcast I'm joined by Pete Glancy one of the authors of the recent Scottish Widows report  into Decumulation -  61266.pdf (scottishwidows.co.uk)  we review the fascinating findings, introduce the retirement decumulation cube and...

Creating an Award Winning Customer Vulnerability Strategy Improving support and outcomes for vulnerable customers has become a real focus for providers over the last few years.  In this podcast we hear from those leading the Workplace Support Teams at Scottish Widows about how vulnerable customers are identified, including some heart stopping stories and they share what has gone into creating the...

AI and Pensions - it's already happening I'm joined by 2 experts explaining how Scottish Widows have deployed AI to improve the colleague and customer experience.  Supporting me on the questions is a rookie student interviewer bringing the younger perspective to the AI Discussion.     It's a fascinating discussion about how AI will revolutionise the pension experience for customers featuring Gilli...

In this episode I'm joined by industry big hitter, veteran, free thinker, diversity champion and entertainer David Butcher David tells us his story of how he went from being Jimmy Hendrix stage manager in Germany to CEO of a large UK pension organisation. He shares how embracing mindfulness helped him recover from some terrible personal tragedies and how his own experience inspired him to launch M...

Mind-blowing discussion with one of Lloyd's experts on scams.  Chris Thomason terrifies by sharing just how far scammers will go to get their hands on your money,  The discussion covers scams we see across the bank hitting both individuals and businesses - and finishes up focussing on how scammers target pension funds too. Chris and his colleagues are designing processes to protect customers.   Al...

A live podcast with an audience of Employers. The focus is on what can be done to improve the retirement outcomes for members of workplace schemes and the panel of employers, comms specialists and policy experts grapple with the issue of pension adequacy. The Employers have done some amazing things and they tell their stories, expertly hosted by Stuart Hopley of Scottish Widows.   Panel Alison Dod...

A live podcast with an audience of employers. Hear from the data experts keeping the data of over 26 million customers safe and working out how to use it to really help people make more of their finances.   Starting at a UK level the panel focus right down to a Scottish Widows level, a scheme level and an individual level - I talk data stories and insights with the experts and look at AI user case...

A really lively panel discussion from impassioned experts from a range of backgrounds hosted byJackie Leiper MD at Scottish Widows delving into the detail and focusing in on some key callouts from the Scottish Widows 2023 Women & Retirement Report. Panel Members Ranila Ravi-Burselm  -Scottish Widows Intermediary Director Ellie Austin-Williams -This Girl Talks Money - Founder Rosie Lacey - Head...

What do scheme members ask when they can just ask experts anything about pensions? With a bit of help from AI - Robert Cochran and Stuart Hopley of Scottish Widows analyse the 2500 questions scheme members asked during Pension Engagement Season - looking at the top 5 themes and also considering the things people didn't ask.

Debating the new cross regulator Value For Money Workplace Savings Framework with a lively audience and an Expert Panel - hosted by Robert Cochran of Scottish Widows