The UK’s largest mutual funds manager Fidelity International (FI) has put forward plans for a new simple pension scheme – the Open Personal Account.

Fidelity’s new account model is an alternative to the National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS), although its new products will adhere to the principles set out by the Department for Work and Pensions’ recent White Paper.

Simon Fraser, the president for European institutional and retirement businesses at FI, said that his company’s new scheme would offer a compromise between giving those who wanted a wider choice of investment options their wishes, while also not punishing those who wanted a more simple retirement solution.

“We believe the Open Personal Account model strikes the right balance between two sets of objectives,” he said.

“On the one hand, it encourages more people to save more for their retirement. On the other, it preserves the right to choose for people who want a greater diversity of investment.”

Mr Fraser added that “better retirement benefits through the workplace is critical to putting the UK back on track to a healthy pension future” but that a balance between the active investors and passive retirement planners was needed.

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