SimplyBiz has appointed Pension Works to its pension transfer referral panel, which carries out defined benefit transfers for advisers.
The firm will sit alongside the other firms on the panel - Grove Pension Solutions, Pensionhelp, Pension Income Planning, P&B Wealth and Aviva Financial Advice.
Pension Works holds the PFS Pension Transfer Gold Standard, which aims to give clients confidence that they are working with expert pension advisers who are guided by a set of principles.
SimplyBiz’s service allows advisers who are either unable to, or choose not to, operate in the DB transfer market to refer their clients to the third-party service.
Over the past nine months, SimplyBiz has provided a range of educational, regulatory and support material - including in-depth guides, dedicated events, regular bulletins and an documentation online hub – designed to help its members understand, and advise in, the pension transfer market.
Gary Kershaw, compliance director of SimplyBiz, said: “It is absolutely vital that clients are given the most suitable advice for their individual circumstances.
“Most of the time, the most suitable course of action won’t be a DB pension transfer, however, it’s absolutely imperative that the client has specialist and experienced guidance to help them explore their options and, when appropriate, conduct their business.
He added that SimplyBiz has conducted extensive due diligence on all of the partners which make up the Bureau panel, to ensure they can continue to provide the very highest quality of service to any referred clients.
Will King, head of business development at Pension Works, said: “Having worked with SimplyBiz over the past five years, we're delighted to now be a part of their DB Bureau.
“Pension Works has worked tirelessly to carefully build our state of the art DB advice process, accompanied by a world class customer experience. The feedback that we've had from existing introducers and clients has been absolutely fantastic and a joy to hear.”
In October the FCA enforced the contingent charging ban, which it said would remove the conflicts of interest which arise when an adviser only gets paid if a transfer goes ahead.
Only consumers with certain identifiable circumstances, such as those suffering from serious ill-health or experiencing serious financial hardship, are exempt.
The ban launched alongside the regulator's concept of abridged advice, which was greeted by a frosty reception, with questions over the level of uptake and concerns it would increase consumer confusion.
Abridged advice sits in between triage and full pension transfer advice but can only result in a personal recommendation to not transfer out of a defined benefit scheme.
amy.austin@ft.com
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