Designing Targeted Support Final Report - Flipbook - Page 7
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Research Objectives
Many individuals in the UK hold large savings balances for extended periods wholly in cash, forgoing the
potential higher returns available from stock and fund investments. The FCA estimates that 61% of the UK
population with investible assets of over £10,000 hold all or most of that money in cash (Financial Lives
Survey, 2022). While returns from equities can be volatile in the short term, over the medium and long term
they consistently exceed cash savings returns. Previous research by TISA and Oxera has shown that many
individuals overestimate the probability of losses from stock and fund investments, and that these
misperceptions are more prevalent among particular groups, including women and those with lower financial
confidence.
The Targeted Support policy framework offers the potential for banks, investment platforms and pension
providers to provide consumers with recommendations that help guide them towards appropriate
investment products. This research set out to test how attitudinal information – data on individual attitudes,
preferences and characteristics – can be used to make those recommendations more effective. Specifically,
the project had three objectives:
1. to measure the additional explanatory value of attitudinal data, beyond basic demographics, for
segmenting consumers;
2. to test whether tailoring investment recommendations to individual attitudinal characteristics
improves consumer uptake of those recommendations; and
3. to evaluate the acceptability to consumers of collecting and using such data.
61% of the UK population with investible assets of
over £10,000 hold all or most of that money in cash
(Financial Lives Survey, 2022).
April 2026
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