National IFA LEBC has called on providers to do more to bring down the cost of advice in support of advisers who are already investing in their businesses in a bid to grow.
The firm’s director of public policy, Kay Ingram, said better collaboration with providers in light of the implementation of the pensions dashboard could cut advice cost by as much as £400 per financial plan.
In particular, she wants providers to release all relevant customer information to the dashboard to help prepare consumers before they approach their adviser.
Speaking at the Association of British Insurers (ABI) conference in London yesterday (26 April), Ms Ingram said: “I would like providers to help us cut the cost of advice to make it more affordable and accessible.
“The pensions dashboard has a really key role to play in that. If providers can get all the information onto the dashboard so that every individual in this country who has got pension savings can actually look at that and see what they’ve got then we are a lot further forward in that engagement.
“And I would also like to see more providers supporting the pension advice allowance to enable individuals who don’t have access to advice to pay for it through their employer.”
Tim Fassam, director of UK public affairs at Prudential, said the dashboard should be “a big shot of adrenaline” for providers to become more adviser friendly.
He said: “There is a whole host we can do at the backend to make sure we are using technology in a smart a way as possible to make ourselves easy to do business with for advisers.
“It is a good outcome for the industry if an adviser has recommended one of our products and it means we are likely to have a happier customer and can be more confident in that the customer gets a good outcome.”
But Ms Ingram also called for better cooperation between providers, advisers and scheme trustees to engage people earlier on in life.
She said: “We get people at retirement come to us and say ‘this is what I’ve got, what do I do with it?'
“We’ve got to reverse that conversation so that people actually have goals that they start planning for much earlier in life.”
LEBC has stocked up on adviser numbers and developed technology in recent years to prepare for the greater influx of people post-pension freedoms.
The firm can now advise 25,000 clients a year with its pool of 95 regulated advisers.
It is currently recruiting more than 20 advisers a year to replace retiring staff and has built on its graduate trainee scheme to bring more advisers in through its firm.
Ms Ingram warned without advice people did not know what they are buying, even with products such as annuities.
She said: “I don’t know how how a member of the public can actually buy their own annuity and get the best deal because it’s too complex.
“They don’t know all the options, it’s complex because they don’t know which providers to go to and (insurers) change the rates of what they are offering all the time.”
She said pensions freedoms had been introduced in recognition of the fact people’s route to retirement was changing and the at times very long interim period from partially leaving work to full retirement was too difficult for people to plan.
LEBC is to publish a report on why people are accessing their pension money and how they are spending it in due course.
carmen.reichman@ft.com
