The demand for education and advice.

29th October 2015

Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work attended a round table event with pension professionals to discuss whether tax relief on pensions will cease and debate over what to expect next including if there should be a Pensions ISA instead of the current tax relief arrangements on pensions.

Watts-Lay comments, “A flat rate would simplify the system. Most employees don’t understand how the system works but, as Robert says, they do understand the ISA system.”

The panel also discussed whether the pension freedoms are working or if they were helping the Exchequer more than the pension member. Watts-Lay comments, “I think demand is there, but this has been a period when schemes have not been able to introduce new freedoms, partly because of the cost and also because trustees are nervous. There are lots of myths about how trustees should go about it. The demand for education and advice we’re getting on this is going through the roof. Retirement plans need to be holistic – the right approach is to find a service provider to give education and advice and then to go and execute it.

Watts-Lay continued, “Some trustees want to see how it all pans out, but how can the right strategy be to wait and see what happens when they have members retiring today? Some trustees are completely behind the curve. There are businesses that can offer the full flexibilities – we’re one of them – so there is no excuse for saying it is all too difficult.”

Watts-Lay also discussed the demand for financial education, “Eight years ago, about 15% of employees requested regulated advice as a result of attending one of our retirement seminars, whereas now demand has peaked at 70%. This is because the education highlights the issues employees need to consider and they suddenly realise they need advice to make the right decisions.”

To read the full article in Pensions World, please click here.