Keeping ahead of the learning curve

Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work, discusses the demand for financial education within Reward magazines  ‘The definitive guide to workplace benefits’.

“We are inundated with requests from employers asking for help on this,” states Jonathan Watts-Lay.  “The big fear is that April is not that far away and what happens when all those employees pick up the phone to their pension department and say ‘I’d like to take some money out, please’?

Jonathan Watts-Lay says “That raises a whole host of questions. Are you just going to allow people to take money out of the occupational scheme and, if you are, what sort of functionality are you going to need to allow it to happen? “If you’re 55 and want to take, say, £10,000 out of your pension for a holiday or a new car, will the scheme allow you to? And what if you come back in six months wanting to take out another £10,000? Will trustees allow that money to be drawn from the scheme itself or will it need to be transferred to a third party?”

Watts-Lay continues, “From the employee perspective there are three fundamental questions. First: ‘tell me what are my options, and what are the pros and cons?’. To answer this it’s a question of going into the workplace and outlining the options, especially helping people recognise that if they take money out they won’t have it in later life. you need to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the trade-off,” says Watts-Lay. He goes on: “Second: ‘Having listened to all that, now I need to work out what’s right for me, including looking at all my assets, for example ISAs and any assets my partner holds’. That starts to go down the route of one-to-one, regulated advice or guidance. “Third: ‘How do I implement what I believe is the right course of action for me and where do I go to execute those options?’. That is about having access to a service provider who can execute against all three of these questions.”

To download a snippet of Reward Magazines ‘The definitive guide to workplace benefits’ and to read our clients, The University of Lincoln’s ‘A Proactive Approach’ case study  please click here.

 

 

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