Willis Towers Watson research reveals that approximately one in five members of defined benefit schemes who have had access to free financial advice, have transferred out of their scheme in order to access retirement options.

The research analysed 15,700 DB scheme members who had been offered some sort of independent financial advice. This was offered at the expense of the scheme’s sponsoring employer since April of last year. Most of the members covered by the survey were offered the free advice as part of a one-off exercise run by their scheme. All pension holders were 55+ but hadn’t started drawing from their pension. The data was supplied to multiple leading financial advisory firms.

The data showed that of those who were offered access to an advisor, 50% of scheme holders took up the offer. Of that 50%, over one third chose to transfer out of their DB scheme.

Head of liability management at Willis Towers Watson said that members of DB schemes don’t always realise that pension freedom doesn’t automatically extend to them. Even less people realise that in order to take advantage of it they have to take financial advice.

When the data was broken down even further, it was revealed that members with bigger DB pensions were even more likely to transfer out. Those who had transfer values that exceeded £250,000 were actually the most likely to transfer out.