Royal London has expressed concerns regarding proposals for a standardised shorter annual benefits statement, warning that key details could be omitted.

In response to the government consultation published in November, the firm has called for a more principle based approach to the annual statements that would avoid future “slow ‘by committee’ processes" for updates.

Reflecting on the sample statement published alongside the consultation, the firm emphasised that costs and charges should be included as well as the percentage return details, which are already included, as well as calls to action, such as updating beneficiaries.

The insurer also bought attention to scheme specific benefits and concerns, highlighting for example that information around the Royal London ProfitShare scheme would not be included in the shortened statement.

The potential cost to schemes was another area of concern, with the insurer estimating a cost of up to £3.6m, with further funding needed for legacy customers.

This was highlighted as a particular concern for Royal London as it already undertook a comprehensive update to annual benefits statement in 2017, a move which saw 95 per cent of customers saying they found the information in the statement easy to understand.

Following the reintroduction of the Pension Schemes Bill in the Queen's speech, the group have also questioned the need for a standardised approach, arguing that "the pensions dashboard will soon become the main place people go to see all their pension information".

Royal London Intermediary CEO, Isobel Langton, said: "While we certainly support the aim to improve how we communicate with customers we feel that taking an industry-wide standardised approach is not the way to go.

"Shoehorning the statement into two pages means important information on costs, charges and investment growth could be omitted.

"We also want the flexibility to include important messages such as the value of taking financial advice, our ProfitShare scheme and where to go to get more information. Adopting a more principles-based approach will enable us to do this.”

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