Helping consumers to understand their financial decisions
The Retirement Income Taskforce, chaired by Margaret Snowdon OBE, is part of the Consumer Duty Alliance and seeks to build on the acknowledged success of the Pensions Advice Taskforce.
The consumer is rightly at the forefront of the regulator’s focus and in turn that of the Taskforce. The Taskforce’s mission is to optimise consumer interest and confidence in interacting with the pension profession in a safe and fruitful way.
For some consumers that interaction is of course rightly going to be through seeking advice.
The Taskforce has recently published a checklist for advisers, sponsored by Legal & General, arising from the FCA’s thematic review.
Helping all consumers find the most appropriate solution
Equally important to the Taskforce are the needs of those consumers for whom seeking and accessing advice may not be their course of action, whether now or in the future. This may be for a number of reasons but cost relative to the value of their funds could be one of them.
They may therefore look for information, guidance or support perhaps using several different avenues. It may be something that they take on themselves or it could be directed through and by their employer or pension provider.
Recognising the evolution and growth of retirement income advice
The Taskforce’s original intention was to retain the Pension Advice Taskforce name but we wanted to embrace the fact that the needs of supporting the consumer have significantly evolved in recent years. Although ‘Gold Standard’ advice for pension transfers is obviously still an imperative, it’s also the case for advice around retirement income. This also complements the FCA’s thematic review for Retirement Income Advice and looks to work alongside their guidance to the market.
Several advice firms have engaged with employers and pension scheme trustees, making a positive case for the provision of advice via the workplace and/or pension scheme. As a result, not only has this sector grown significantly, with potential for much stronger future growth, it has progressed from largely being focused on provision of retirement advice to wider focus on advice throughout the employee life cycle.
Alongside this growth, the FCA’s introduction of “Consumer Duty” seeks to set new and positive standards. Arguably, these standards would always have been the baseline for any firm or individual delivering professional, properly tailored, value for money personal recommendations, underpinning informed decisions.
The time is right for the Taskforce to help show how the sector can deliver this.
The sector has many willing experts who want to lead the way. It needs a new, broader partnership to ensure that consumers can navigate a very different future, with longer lifespans, and an increased incidence of ill health at older ages but with less savings and liquid assets.
There are many sources of information support, guidance and advice and many touch points for consumers.
The Retirement Income Taskforce therefore seeks to help link relevant stakeholders to establish good practice and a common framework for the delivery of safe and appropriate information (support), guidance and advice to consumers. Enabling consumers to better prepare for their retirement and the levels of income in retirement that they may expect.