Imagining future could help super engagement

14 June 2018
| By Hannah |
image
image
expand image

The secret to engaging consumers in their superannuation could lie in helping them better imagine the future selves their retirement savings would be supporting, but funds will first need to better understand their members, according to Milliman.

The firm said that attempts to persuade members to save more super by used broad-based, one-size-fits-all targets had failed and a new approach was needed.

“Research suggests another path,” Milliman said. “When members are able to see their future selves in vivid and realistic detail, they are more willing to make choices today that may benefit them in years to come.”

It believed that this could help mitigate the effects of hyperbolic or temporal discounting, which makes people care less about future outcomes that present ones.

According to academic Hal Hershfield, “when the future self shares similarities with the present self, when it is viewed in vivid and realistic terms, and when it is seen in a positive light, people are more willing to make choices today that may benefit them at some point in the years to come.”

Milliman warned that to connect members’ present selves with their future ones would require super funds to understand them “far deeper”. It suggested the use of data analytics could help do so.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Recommended for you

sidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

4 months 3 weeks ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

5 months ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

5 months ago

Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered the Albanese government’s third federal budget on Tuesday evening, 14 May, touting a balanced approach in an environment of cross current...

13 hours ago

The financial services software company announced it detected unauthorised access of its GitHub user space over the weekend....

18 hours ago

The fund has announced an internal promotion to the newly created role. ...

1 day 15 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND