Malcolm McLean calls for pensions passport

Barnett Waddingham senior consultant, Malcolm McLean, has called for a pensions passport to help individuals keep on top of different pensions accumulated over their working lives.

McLean said the days of people working for one employer have gone, meaning many people face a challenge remembering what pensions they have and where as they approach retirement. He commented: “The idea of a pensions passport, a document that would hold information on all of a person’s pension policies has much to commend it and should be developed. Obviously setting this up and collecting all the data together in the first place would be challenging but would pay dividends in the longer term.”

He added that the automatic transfer of small pension pots (pot-follows-member) would not only help people keep track of their pensions but would help them search for lost policies. “The days when pension papers and other related documents were kept on a shelf or at the back of a desk drawer (or worst of all were not kept at all) should be put behind us, and better and more sophisticated methods of information storage brought into use for the benefit of all concerned,” McLean said.