Justin Urquhart Stewart has called for a ‘national conversation’ to tackle ignorance on retirement planning.

The co-founder and head of corporate development of 7IM said the next Government needs to “devote some real time on this issue”.

His firm has kick started a 'we need to talk about' campaign, launching a discussion paper.

This questions some of the ‘old assumptions’ about retirement planning.

He said: “There's a huge education job to be done which needs to stretch beyond the classroom through to the workplace and around the coffee table.

“Any new Government needs to devote some real time on this issue and whilst lots of adults don't like to envisage an old age where the money has run out, nor do MP's - and nor do they have to, some might argue, with their final salary schemes.

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“It's time to get talking, and it's time for a national conversation. People need to be in a much greater position of knowledge about what's happening with their retirement pots – they might not need to know every holding they are exposed to, but they do need to know if they are being automatically derisked.

“When it comes to financial education, I've always believed in action, not words. Now I think it’s time for both.”

The concept of derisking the closer you get there “really does belong back in the 1980's”, Mr Urquhart Stewart believes.

He said: “It's thought that around £100bn is still invested in funds which do precisely that, and many people won't even realise that their pension is being derisked as retirement approaches. It might still be right for some, but it absolutely won't be right for everyone. The world has changed, people are living longer, and money has to work so much harder. People need to be in a position of knowledge.”

He explained that his firm stress-tested a range of scenarios – the good times, the not so good times, bull markets, the credit crunch, taper tantrums, the eurozone crisis.

He said: “Even when we simulated scenarios worse than those in recent history, we found similar results; the moderately cautious investor ran out of money ahead of the balanced investor. And to try to avoid self interest, we modelled this on our moderately cautious and balanced funds, rather than using hypothetical indices.”