Advisers are at capacity and unable to meet the demand for pension planning brought on by the introduction of pension freedoms five years ago, industry participants have said.
Appearing on the FTAdviser Podcast Tom Selby and financial planner Krupesh Kotecha were discussing the pension freedoms five years on.
Mr Kotecha said the freedoms have definitely been a positive step for advisers as more people seek advice to navigate the complexities of drawdown but he added many advisers have stopped taking on new clients.
He said: “There isn’t any shortage of people looking for advice so they have been beneficial for the whole advisory community in that respect but unfortunately there is not enough advisers to meet this demand.”
Mr Selby backed up these claims saying he had noticed the same trend across the adviser market.
He said: "This echoes the experience I have had when on our 'on the road events' where we speak to advisers around various parts of the country.
"When the speaker asked advisers to put their hands up if they were taking on new business, in most rooms of 25 advisers there would never be more than a couple saying they were open to new business."
While they agreed it was difficult to pin down exactly where success and failure lies when it comes to pension freedoms, they claimed the freedoms have been popular overall so far, with the industry reacting well to the changes made.
Mr Selby said: “The pension freedoms have been very popular. We have seen huge [numbers] of people accessing their pots flexibly and we haven’t seen people on the whole making highly irresponsible decisions with their money.
“People are more attracted to saving in a pension as a result of the freedoms because they have a bit more flexibility if they want to access their pot.”
Mr Kotecha said: “It is too early to tell. When looking at what retirement period people may have it can be 30 or 40 years ahead, so five years is not a long enough period to actually define that success.”
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