B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension, has joined forces with LV to offer an online planning service to members approaching retirement.
From next month, the 2.3 million members of The People’s Pension and the construction industry scheme EasyBuild will have the option to use the online solution if they don’t want to seek traditional financial advice.
Members will be able to access a free guidance report setting out four possible uses for their pot and how long it could last, and receive a personalised online retirement advice service costing just £49.
They will still be signposted to traditional advice routes first, but according to B&CE the online tool will help fill the advice gap for those who don’t want to use them.
The new service launches in the wake of new YouGov research for The People’s Pension which found that only one in five of the general public (18 per cent) currently use a financial adviser.
Three in 10 who have a pension would prefer to use online tools for financial advice than speak to a financial adviser, the YouGov poll showed.
Roy Porter, director of business development for The People’s Pension, said: “We know advisers play a really important role in helping people make decisions about their individual circumstances at retirement if members choose to engage with them, so we’ll continue to promote traditional options with our members when they contact us at retirement as well as the online service.
“Our research suggests that a lot of people are not taking advice at the moment. Whether that is because of cost, lack of awareness or fear, it is creating a big guidance and advice gap which needs to be filled.
“That is why we are really excited to be working with LV to launch these new options for our members.
“The free guidance report should help savers assess their options, and at just £49 for detailed online retirement advice, this brings an additional affordable choice for our members to help them obtain a good outcome from their retirement savings.”
John Perks, managing director of retirement solutions at LV, said: “At present there is a lack of affordable, accessible, quality advice but LV has been at the forefront of finding innovative ways to make it easier for people to take advice.”
It was last August that LV took a majority stake in UK-based automated advice firm Wealth Wizards.
