Mas has shown tangible results: Rookes
The chief executive of the Money Advice Service has admitted failings in explaining its services to the adviser community but insisted it had shown tangible results.
Caroline Rookes said: “I accept that we have not had been as good as we could have been in explaining to IFAs what new services we provide.”
In a video interview for FTAdviser, she added that Mas was focusing on day-to-day money management, which involved helping people to budget properly, as opposed to the services involved in regulated advice.
Ms Rookes pointed to the fact that the Mas website had more than 16m contacts in 2014, with more than 20m expected this year.
She also noted that the service was planning to roll out its retirement advisory directory by the end of March, in time for the pension changes due in April.
Firms have been invited to register for the directory online.
“People have to choose which directory to go to (under the current system) and, having chosen the directory, which adviser to go to”, she added, warning that that all parties providing consumer support - from regulated advice to guidance - would need to pull together in time for the pension changes.
Ms Rookes said: “The changes that are coming up in April are really significant. They are giving people a whole range of choice that they have not had before and people are going to need a lot of support.
“All organisations, whether ones like ours that provide generic advice or financial advisers and providers of pensions, are going to have to work hard and work together to make these changes a success.”
Ms Rookes also claimed that many people were too focused on their immediate financial circumstances to consider longer-term issues such as saving for retirement.
She said that people were dealing with the financial consequences of life events such as separation, bereavement or having a child.
Adviser view
Mark Stokes, managing director of Berkshire-based Lewis Chambers, said: “We need to work more closely together with the regulator to make sure that every section of the population is catered to.
“I would expect Mas to refer people up to financial advisers and advisers to refer people down to Mas.”
