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New pension option for self-employed workers

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
25/01/2021

Raindrop offers a fully digital, flexible all-in-one online pension solution.

Raindrop has been developed by a group of city professionals and tech entrepreneurs and has the backing of Resolution Compliance which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

It offers investment options which allow users to choose a pension plan designed to be invested in a way that meets their desired retirement date. Pension savers have access to funds from global investment manager BlackRock.

Raindrop also provides a pension AI bot service which can assist with finding old pensions, even for customers with minimal information on their old plans, and consolidate them into one pot.

Marco Ross, Raindrop’s chief executive, said: “Self-employed workers have long been forgotten when it comes to the current and complex pensions landscape. We know that there are many barriers for people in saving for their future and few solutions that solve them, until now. We also know from recent research that the pandemic has had a big impact on the ability of self-employed people to save and they want to do so flexibly.

“Raindrop goes much further than what is currently available in that it has been developed specifically for the millions of self-employed workers across the country, but also provides one easy-to-use platform to empower them to plan and save for their retirement in a way that suits their circumstances.”

The new platform can be set up in less than 10 minutes and allows millions of savers who are self-employed, but who have been left out of benefits of auto-enrolment, to directly invest in a pension in a way that suits them.

Savers also have the option to flexibly adapt their pension payments whenever they want, opting for regular or one-off payments, or pausing contributions.

A recent report by the UK government-backed pension scheme, Nest, revealed that more than 80% of self-employed workers don’t have a pension.

Philip Fortio, Raindrop’s chief product officer, said: “Raindrop is flexible, secure and smart and works for every freelance or self-employed worker, from accountants and plumbers to architects and vets. As well as bringing together all the important aspects of pensions for self-employed people into one, easy solution, Raindrop empowers people to pick a pension plan based on the date they want to retire.”