Aon, the pension and investment specialist, recently reported that a 60 year old worker on a defined contribution pension is expected to receive 40% less from their pension today, than at the start of the credit crunch. This goes a long way in highlighting the volatility in the marketplace over the last year, which has put millions of retirement plans into disarray.

However, Aon has revealed, in its newly created Admin Tracker, that despite an extremely volatile economic environment the number of individuals reviewing their current pension arrangements is very low. Of a sample of around 350,000 people only 0.27% of individuals surveyed have requested retirement or transfer out quotes. On a positive note, the new tracker which records the number of people requesting retirement quotes in both defined contribution and benefits schemes, suggested that enquiries had almost doubled in one year for the defined contribution scheme.

The amount of enquiries have also increased for transfer out quotes by 17% in Q1’09 compared with Q1’08, suggesting that people are having financial concerns. Despite the volatile investment market only 0.02% of defined contribution members have actually adjusted their investment profile in Q1’09. Colin Hamilton, Commercial Director at Aon Consulting suggests, “the lack of investment activity may surprise some given the unprecedented year…however, minimal investment activity is not necessarily a bad thing in the current economic climate. Members must be well informed and switches made for the right reasons, always bearing in mind that their pension represents a long-term investment”.

However, the reality for those intending to retire in the foreseeable future is bleak. No matter what life stage you are at, it is important to continually review your pension arrangements to ensure that you are taking advantage of any changes in regulation and maximizing returns over the long-term.