by Dan Bryans
Some people Retire at 55 with 300k, others retire in their late 60’s and some don’t even retire at all – either because they enjoy their job or they don’t have the financial ability to.
Of course, it’s very important to keep on top of any new proposals that could affect your retirement plan. A lot of people keep track of news themselves or through an independent financial advisor. So, you definitely want to take note of what’s happened recently. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published new proposals on advice relating to pension transfers where consumers have safeguarded benefits.
The FCA proposals aim to reflect the current environment and the increased demand for pension transfer advice. This increase in advice has also meant there is an increase in mis-sold pension transfers after promises have been made to consumers that aren’t true. For example, there has been a clear increase in mis-sold sipp claims. It’s not all bad news though because since the introduction of the pension freedoms in April 2015, consumers have more options available to access their pension savings.
This has combined with more recent changes to the financial environment leading to historically high levels of transfer values.
Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition at the FCA said:
“Defined Benefit pensions, and other safeguarded benefits such as guarantees, are valuable so most consumers will be best advised to keep them. However, we recognise that the environment has changed significantly, so we want to ensure that financial advice considers the customer’s circumstances in full and recognises the various options now available to them.
“Our new approach should better equip advisers to give the right advice so that consumers make well informed decisions.”
