Adviser veteran Andy Kirby has created a series of videos to educate clients about pension transfers before they even see a financial adviser.
Called the Final Salary Portal for Advisers, the service is offered by Mr Kirby's financial education firm, Business Moneyalive
It is made up of a series of 17 short videos, each illustrating a particular issue relating to pension transfers, such as what it means to your guarantees if you transfer out, or what it means for taxation if you stay.
Demand for pension transfers out of defined benefit schemes into to defined contribution products have soared in the two years since the introduction of pension freedoms rules, which meant DC, but not DB, pension holders could have unfettered access to their entire retirement pot.
However advisers have been wary about advising on DB transfers for fear of facing hefty claims for compensation should clients later regret giving up generous benefits.
Mr Kirby said the aim is for advisers to send their clients a link to the portal, so the client can get educated about the basic facts of staying in the scheme or transferring out.
Each animated video, which includes a case study, prompts the client to click that they have understood the topic, or to ask a question at the end if there was a point of clarification needed by the client.
These questions can then be used by the financial adviser in the eventual client meeting to go through any particular points.
At the end of the process, the information, confirmation of viewing and questions created by the client are downloaded into a PDF, which the adviser can keep as a compliant record of having provided impartial education and information on pension transfers.
Mr Kirby, who founded adviser hub Adviser Home, an online business development portal for advisers, and is the founder and owner of Mint Wealth Management, said, "there are so many issues around final salary transfers at the moment, so we wanted to give advisers something to support them in the advice process".
"This is not designed to replace the advice process, but to support it. Advisers will end up seeing a client who is better informed, and who has been able to consider some of the issues beforehand."
Mr Kirby added: "When looking at the transfer market it is difficult to get across all the relevant facts in the suitability letter, but by visualising topics, such as what is a critical yield, we can show people what it is all about."
Clients often tend to remember what they remember - which is not always everything. So if you can use this to evidence what you have gone through with a client, this can really help. Russell FacerThe information contained in each of the individual videos has been created by an accredited trainer, then looked at by the Pensions Management Institute to provide input.
Ian Beestin, marketing director of Business Moneyalive, said: "We have also worked on the creation of the Final Salary Portal with a large professional indemnity (PI) broker and with a financial services litigation lawyer, so the portal has gone through a really robust process before the series was filmed and animated.
"Given pension transfers is such a momentous decision, providing this series of videos - which takes less time to watch than an episode of Strictly Come Dancing - could help to reduce the time spent by advisers on basic education."
The team at Business.Moneyalive - which rebranded from The Pensions Portal earlier this year - is launching the prototype next week at the Personal Finance Society festival of financial planning on 8 November, and the product is set to go live in mid-December.
There are tiers of charges for advisers, which can be found on the website, based on the number of advisers in a firm and the likely number of pension transfer cases within a month.
Russell Facer, managing director of threesixty Services, said: "We are going to flag this to our clients to use as a best-practice approach to the process. Anything that helps with consumer education has to be a good thing. Some might like to talk about it, other might prefer to go through a series of animated videos.
"It is good advisers can get the clients to go through the actual training before they sit down together, which could make the end advisory process more robust. It is also great that advisers can prove the information about DB transfers has been given in an impartial and transparent way."
He added that PI insurers would also find such an approach would be helpful when it comes to underwriting, knowing that an adviser has a robust, documented process, as well as at the point of claim.
Jamie Newell, managing director of PI provider O3 Insurance Solutions, commented: "If you use the Final Salary Portal, not only will you have better informed clients, but advisers will also be able to demonstrate to PII insurers they have robust risk management and working practices."
Mr Facer added: "Clients often tend to remember what they remember - which is not always everything. So if you can use this to evidence what you have gone through with a client, this can really help advisers."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
