The Personal Finance Society has written to ministers with a proposal that every working adult in the UK should be offered a voucher for a financial health check with an adviser.
The professional body has today (22 February) written to Simon Kirby, the economic secretary to HM Treasury, and Damian Green, secretary of state for work & pensions, calling for the government to work with the Personal Finance Society to take the initiative forward.
The idea was a core recommendation in the society’s response to the government’s public financial guidance review consultation, submitted last week.
Keith Richards, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, said: “The need for consumers to have access to financial advice is greater than ever, and we believe that this initiative offers a practical solution to bridging the current advice gap and getting consumers who need advice in front of a qualified professional.
“A government voucher scheme would give many who have never thought of professional advice a first-hand experience of its value and would demonstrate a real commitment by the new guidance body to collaborate with the personal finance profession to achieve workable outcomes in the public interest.
“Many advisers are already delivering introductory financial advice sessions to consumers at their own expense and a voucher to cover the cost of a qualified guidance session would increase access and protect the interests of more consumers against poor planning and scams.”
In 2015 the government announced plans to merge the Money Advice Service with Pension Wise and The Pensions Advisory Service to create a more “joined-up approach”.
In response to a consultation on the issue, the PFS said the government should remove the term ‘advice’ from the branding, marketing and communications of its new public financial guidance body.
The PFS also said a financial health check session could be offered to consumers at a time in their working lives when they are best placed to develop a long-term course of action for achieving their financial and life goals.
Participating advisers could deduct a proportion of the cost of each session from their next FCA levy, based on a rate per redeemed voucher submitted.
The sessions would be delivered by telephone or face-to-face and would result in a summary of options that might include full financial advice where the need is evident.
Together with Citizens Advice, the PFS already operates a pro-bono financial advice scheme called MoneyPlan.
Mr Richards said: “Our experience, and specifically our MoneyPlan initiative, has shown that professional financial advisers are eager to offer their services to consumers in need of financial advice.”
damian.fantato@ft.com
