The Roaring Twenties

Home schooling, social distancing, cocooning, Joe Wicks and Zoom are items that were not to the forefront of people’s agenda at the start of 2020. For many, pensions could be added to this list.

In 2019, there was growing momentum behind the topic of pension adequacy and it made headlines on a more frequent basis. The State pension became an integral part of the general election and as Oscar Wilde once famously said: “The only worse thing than being talked about, is not being talked about.”

It was only on the 24^th January that COVID-19 first hit Europe via an outbreak in France. Since that time people are reflecting more and rediscovering the more important aspects to life. Family and health are priority and a person’s financial wellbeing is intrinsically linked to both.

At the beginning of June we had over 57,800 employers registered for the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy, equating to 543,200 dependent employees.

There is no time like the present to reassess all aspects of life and in particular pension planning. Ask yourself the following:

• Will my current level of funding provide for my desired lifestyle post retirement?
• When was the last time I actually sat down and read my most recent benefit statement?
• If I have low debt with disposable cash, maybe now is a time to increase my pension contribution so that I can avail of the generous tax reliefs.
• How long will these tax reliefs last?
• What is my risk profile and am I part of a default strategy, if not, why not - ask questions!
• How is my current fund choice performing relative to its peers?
• When was the last time I contacted my financial advisor or provider.

At Zurich, we constantly promote customer engagement. Customers and advisors are our bedrock and we continue to offer value in these uncertain times by:

• Our active investment management via our award winning funds.
• Competitive product structures including default strategies with varying levels of risk.
• Member forecasting tools and real-time values of your benefits available online.
• Bespoke member information website specific toyour companies pension scheme.
• Our people – our investment team, customer services, administrators, compliance, risk governance, customer relationship managers and many more – are there to help.

We are all living through a surreal unprecedented period. Wikipedia describes ‘The Roaring Twenties’ as: “A decade of economic growth and widespread prosperity, driven by a recovery from wartime devastation and deferred spending.”

The Roaring Twenties ended with the 1929 Wall Street Crash and included prohibition with restricted living conditions. In fifty years’ time, could the 2020’s be described as: The Roaring Twenties – A decade of economic growth and widespread prosperity, driven by a recovery from the COVID-19 crisis?