Your IndustryApr 1 2015

Mas to go into beta with 4,500 advisers, but work needed

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Mas to go into beta with 4,500 advisers, but work needed

The Money Advice Service’s retirement adviser directory, which will be the main referral route for advice through the Pension Wise guidance service, will go into beta testing next week.

Mas revealed it will have around 4,500 advisers and 1,200 firms listed when it goes into beta testing mode, more than double the number it had amassed at the beginning of last month.

There were 1,900 advisers registered when the service provided an update in early March. the number signed up ahead of the reforms accords with research conducted previously by FTAdviser that found less than a third would sign up in the short term.

Testing of the service will therefore happen in the same week that the new pension freedom reforms come into effect and the guidance service begins taking meetings.

It will also be critical: a preview of the new directory, sent to advisers who have registered their details on the directory and tested by FTAdviser, highlights some impressive features as well as issues likely to confuse customers, in particular in relation to proximity rankings.

To refine a search for an adviser, the system asks how the consumer wishes to receive advice - face-to-face, online or over the telephone - as well as what specifically the advice is in relation to, including ‘pension pots’, options when paying for care, equity release, inheritance tax planning and wills and probate.

Users can click one option or several and, for pensions, there are a number of sub-categories, for example asking what size of pension pot you have.

FTAdviser tested the system using the example of someone who wanted face-to-face advice and had a pension pot of below £50,000. The system found just over 300 firms (31 pages) could help, but the first on the list was 188 miles away from the selected postcode.

In addition to ranking problems, the system also appeared to have mis-read the postcode as it stated one adviser based in Lancashire (and only in Lancashire) is just over five miles away and another in Newcastle is seven miles away from the selected south-west London address.

The actual closest adviser was near the bottom of the first page of results. In part this result was due to ranking logic which prioritises type of advice over proximity.

An adviser based in the south of England who has tested the system also cited positive elements, but encountered similar problems with where his firm appeared in results.

He said: “As soon as you get specific, it goes from nearest firm to alpha order, so that firms in Scotland can come up before my firm, which may be next door to the consumer.

“Even that didn’t make sense as there were firms with letters before F appearing sooner than mine and with 13 pages to wade through looking at distance away, the database needs a little more work.”

donia.o’loughlin@ft.com