With the growing importance of personal pension management to provide financial security in the future, amid increasing instability in financial markets and a cost-of-living crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic, this book has explored how individuals engage with the pressure to plan for retirement. Since the 1980s, a ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980, p 131) has been established in which it is seen as normal that individuals take over responsibility over future risks by building a diversified financial asset stock, guided by finance rationality, on which they can draw upon during periods of income shortfalls. Putting emphasis on ‘values of personal conduct’ (Foucault, 1984, p 41), people should embrace risk willingly, actively engage with financial products and adopt financial strategies such as diversification. This change in behaviour is incentivized by ‘a weakening of the political and social framework’ (Foucault, 1984, p 41). Pensions, sick pay and unemployment benefits have been continuously reduced and labour market regulations weakened. Consequently, the United Kingdom has one of the lowest social service provisions and one of the weakest employment protections among OECD countries, creating an environment where it is costlier for individuals not to provide financial security themselves. And yet, individuals do not invest as expected, reflected in under-saving and under-diversifying.

Instead of questioning the ability of asset-based welfare measures to deliver financial welfare, measures have been implemented which attempt to bring everyday practices closer to theoretical assumptions, such as automatic enrolment in workplace pensions and financial education targeting people across the social strata (Roberts, 2015; Bucher-Koenen et al, 2016; Montgomerie and Tepe-Belfrage, 2019). These measures seek to increase pension savings and reduce the employment of irrational heuristics, reflected in a lack of engagement with investment tools and sub-optimal investment choices (Altman, 2012; Mitchell and Lusardi, 2012; Elliehausen, 2019). Even with such measures in place, there remains a persistent wealth inequality. More critical studies have therefore argued that financial inclusion initiatives, instead of empowering individuals, operate as a disciplining mechanism (Langley, 2007; Loomis, 2018).