Staying on message

25th November 2014

Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work, discusses ‘Staying on message’ with Pensions Age.

“We think the number of member queries will increase,” Watts-Lay says. “The reason being is whatever newspaper you pick up at the moment, it is constantly publicised that those aged 55 and over will be able to withdraw part or all of their pension pot if they wish to do so from April 2015. Also people are delaying making retirement decisions in anticipation of the news rules, so we expect an influx of enquiries from April 2015.”

“Many employers are putting in place rolling financial education programmes for employees from age 45 to ensure they understand the options and have plenty of time to plan their eventual retirement,” Watts-Lay adds. “Many employees may want to make a series of decisions over time rather than a single choice at retirement, therefore employers need to consider what services they will make available to ensure employees can execute their chose options.”

Watts-Lay continues “the best way to communicate the (pension) changes is through financial education, which can be delivered through many routes, such as seminars, webinars or through online tools. This education would then ideally be balanced by individual regulated advice to provide a measure of protection to both employer and employee.”

Jonathan Watts-Lay concludes with, “but we are seeing an avalanche of companies planning to put this type of thing in place by April 2015, ensuring their employees truly understand the new pension freedom and Choices.”

For further details on the pension changes and the three steps to pension flexibility please click here.