You may have read all the recent press regarding the Consumer Focus investigation into pensions switching and advice in the individual personal pensions market found serious problems. The main concern was around the additional higher charges that some customers were facing on switching into a new pension.
The report can be found here http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/news/watchdog-raises-concerns-over-personal-pensions
I couldn’t agree more with the report. This is why when I set my business up that transparency of charges and fees was a priority. Firstly I don’t take commissions. My fee is agreed with my client before any work is carried out. I also use transparent charged pensions using independent custodians. There are 3 charges, one for custodian, one for the investment and one for the ongoing advice. Usually the charges are considerably less in one or more of the three charges. These are all clearly laid out and compared with a client’s existing pension or pensions and provided in a report which my client has chance to read and digest before proceeding. It is important to me that my client is aware of who they are paying and what they are paying
It would be nice to see the back of these practises and unfortunately there are still financial advisers who are paid to be a distribution channel by the product providers.
