Capita Employee Benefits, Foster Denovo Limited, LV= and Towry have partnered up to offer guidance and financial advice to members who are rapidly approaching retirement.
The service, coined At Retirement, was formed in response to the massive demand directly following the introduction of freedom and choice within pension schemes. The programme is being led by Rob Tinsley formerly of Aspire to Retire and is primarily targeting employers and trustees with defined contribution schemes.
Pension freedoms give members more choice when it comes to at-retirement solutions. Unfortunately for employees and scheme holders, advice has been few and far between for the mass market. This lack of direction and help is the catalyst for ill-informed decisions concerning long-term financial wellbeing. HR experts also explain that while employees may know that hiring someone to advise them on their retirement is beneficial in the long-run, the short-term fee is a large deterrent. Managing Director of retirement solutions at LV=, John Perks, said that nearly half a million people retire each year without taking any kind of advice.
Human resource experts explain At Retirement lends employers the ability to offer advice services to their employees, ultimately helping protect their workers’ financial welfare well into retirement.
The programme is divided into three different tiers of advice. The first runs through LV= and is called non-advised. This tier is for members who have an understanding of what retirement strategy they want. In many cases, these members will probably want some kind of annuity purchase.
Tier number two is named robo-advice, also via LV=. This tier accommodates straightforward, medium sized savings and offers guidance in the form of telephone support from regulated advisors.
Finally, tier three is full advice. This tier runs through Foster Denovo or Towry and features face-to-face or telephone based advice. This is reserved for scheme holders with larger sums with more complexity, or for those who do not want to take advantage of online services.
The goal of At Retirement is really to help minimise risk and to help employers “demonstrate good governance” while offering “an enhanced retirement process” to employees. Human resource professionals also believe this kind of service will actually increase member engagement with their schemes.
