Could you benefit from financial advice?

As you approach retirement you may find yourself with lots of questions. When can I retire? How much will I have to live off? What type of retirement product is best for me? How can I ensure that I don’t run out of money? Is there a way of making my pension go further? Some people will already know the answers to these questions but for others, it can be difficult to know where to begin!

A financial adviser can help you feel more in control of your retirement savings plans, make decisions about your pension savings with confidence and, when the day comes, help you make the right choices when it comes to covering the cost of your lifestyle in retirement.

Financial advice vs financial guidance – what’s the difference?

Something you might not realise is that ‘financial advice’ and ‘financial guidance’ are not the same thing, but rather they are distinct services – and it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Financial guidance can explain what financial products are available to you and how they work, educating you as to your options and empowering you to make your own decisions. It’s also free, which makes it a great starting point regardless of how much help you think you might need. Financial guidance can be an invaluable tool to help support your financial decisions, but it is not based on your individual circumstances and needs, and therefore cannot provide you with a personalised recommendation on the best course of action for you. Examples of financial guidance include information found on the gov.uk website, or Moneyhelper’s Pensionwise Service. Educational information from your pension provider can also count as financial guidance. 

When to get financial advice?

You need to consider whether you need your money right now or within the next few years. You should also consider whether you need to access your pension savings before you are able to get financial advice.

We would always recommend that you get advice from a regulated financial adviser. Although you’ll have to pay for this advice, there it could save you a lot of money and give you the peace of mind you need in the long run.

If you need access to your money now and you have accessible cash savings, you should consider whether these funds could be used first instead of your pension savings. This might mean that you can delay making any important or irreversible decisions regarding your pension until your financial adviser has had the opportunity to review your options.

If you require money to pay off your debts or to subsidise your income as your income has dropped in value, then the government has a range of measures to offer support during this time.

How does financial advice work?

Unlike financial guidance, financial advice is a bespoke service based around your specific needs with the aim of providing you with a personalised recommendation on how to achieve your financial goals. If you have any questions about your options when it comes to taking your pension, a financial adviser can review your unique situation and recommend a clear approach. This could involve selecting a pension product that best serves your retirement plans and assessing exactly when to start taking your pension, or pensions, in order to ensure you have as comfortable a retirement as possible and, crucially, don’t run out of money. It can also involve plotting the most tax-efficient way for you to retire, so you do not pay more tax than necessary.

Another key factor with financial advice is that it is regulated. Financial advisers are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide advice, which gives you more protection should anything go wrong. As with financial guidance, financial advice is impartial – so you can be confident that any advice you are given is genuinely in your best interests. Unlike financial guidance, financial advice is usually a paid service due to its bespoke nature.

Financial advisers aren’t always known as ‘financial advisers’. Instead, they can be named by the area they specialise in such as ‘investment adviser’, ‘pension adviser’ or ‘financial planner’. Alternatively they might be known as a broker. 

There are minimum qualifications that all regulated financial advisers need to have achieved, such as a Chartered Financial Planner or the Certified Financial Planner qualification. They may also hold specific qualifications covering the areas they specialise in, such as pension transfers.

Many financial advisers will offer you a free initial meeting and any legitimate and properly qualified adviser will also show you their certificates (if requested).

How to get financial advice

If you think financial advice might be for you but aren’t sure where to begin, the MoneyHelper website contains a useful directory to help you find one

The MoneyHelper website also provides some example key questions for you to ask your financial adviser, which are useful to consider asking when choosing a financial adviser.

As a TPT member, you can also get discounted financial advice through our carefully selected partner, Origen Financial Services Ltd. Origen are authorised and regulated by the FCA and their financial advice is entirely independent from TPT.

Origen offers two basic services to members of the TPT Master Trust to help you at different stages of your retirement planning journey:

• Financial advice to help you review and maintain your plans for savings into your TPT workplace pension towards retirement.
• Financial advice to help you with the important decisions you need to make when considering providing a retirement income from your TPT pension savings.

These services are designed to help ensure that your pension savings are working for you.

Each service includes an initial meeting with an Origen adviser, a pension report detailing recommendations in respect of your TPT retirement savings, and a follow-up call to discuss the recommendation. They have a fixed price of £600 inclusive of VAT and includes advice on your TPT defined contribution pension. 

If you require advice on other pensions, savings or investments, Origen can also provide advice on other pensions, savings and investments for an additional charge.

If you would like to find out more about the services provided by Origen and whether they are right for you, you can contact Origen either by phone at 0800 819 9121 or by sending an email to TPTpensionadvice@Origenfs.co.uk. This initial conversation to find out more about the service will be free of charge.

A bit about Origen

Origen is one of the UK’s leading national financial advisers, with a history of providing advice for over 130 years. They’ve received numerous awards in recognition of their service, including, Retirement Planning Advisory Firm of the Year for the last 7 years at the NCQ Global Awards.

Pension scams

A pension might someone’s most valuable asset, and for many people their pension will offer them financial security throughout their retirement and for the rest of their lives.

However, pensions can also become a target for illegal activities, scams or unsuitable and high-risk investments.

Pension scams can take various forms and often look like a legitimate investment opportunity. Pension scammers are extremely intelligent and know what to do in order to convince someone to hand over their savings. Scammers can target anyone.

If you fall victim to a pension scam you can lose all your pension savings and may also be subject to a tax charge of up to 55% of any amount taken out or transferred, plus further charges from your pension provider. If the scam investments are overseas, there is unlikely to be any consumer protection.

Often the rate of return on a pension scam is massively inflated, with false investments in things like property, hotel developments, environmental solutions and luxury goods, which often don’t exist or are very high-risk with low returns.

There is a ban on cold calling about pensions and as such, you should ignore anyone who approaches you unexpectedly to your pension. If you are contacted unexpectedly by a person or organisation claiming they can help you access your pension before the age of 55 (increasing to 57), it’s also highly likely to be a pension scam.

You should always check that anyone claiming they can help you with your pension is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can do this by using the FCA's register or by calling their consumer helpline.

For more information on pension scams, click here.