The pensions specialist said the government should encourage individuals to save for its own sake rather than tie them into complex financial products “every time they put £1 aside”.
Speaking at the launch of the MRM Generation Austerity research, he said: “We have created a product-based mentality, through successive changes to legislation, that means every person requires financial advice whenever they put £1 aside.
“We must reach a point when people are not necessarily savings towards a car, a holiday or a pension, but because it makes sense regardless of your goals.”
He said that when society had reached this point, people would have no further need to be concerned about whether advisers could help the younger generation of savers because of a perceived lack of advisers to help with their demands. Mr Bee recently lambasted the concept of pensions, arguing they should be scrapped and replaced with a single, tax-efficient savings product.
George Osborne’s decision to augment the tax-free savings allowance in the wake of this year’s Budget has proved favourable to advisers, said Elissa Bayer, senior investment director at Investec Wealth & Investment. She described the new £15,000 tax-free allowance as a major boost to the savings industry.
What do you think? Email: fa.newsdesk@ft.com
Adviser view
Garry Filby, financial adviser at Berkshire-based Financial Aspects, said: “One cannot get away from the fact that advisers are governed by the regulator and legislation of the day, as well as being somewhat reliant on products delivered by companies at any given time.”
