B&CE, the provider of The People’s Pension is teaming up with LV= to offer retiring members regulated robo advice at a cost of £49.
The partnership, which sees no revenue flowing between the two organisations, offers scheme members accessing pension an automated advice service costing £49, a quarter of LV=’s standard £199 robo advice cost. Members using the service complete an online fact find, taking around 45 minutes, and receive a 20-page bespoke retirement advice report highlighting quotes from LV=’s panel of conventional and enhanced annuity providers, its own drawdown proposition and cash withdrawal options.
Individuals wanting to then execute the recommendations can either do so themselves or get LV=’s advice team to do so for a further £499.
The launch comes as YouGov research for The People’s Pension finds that less than one in five of the general public – 18 per cent – currently use a financial adviser, while 30 per cent who have a pension would prefer to use online tools for financial advice than speak to a financial adviser.
The survey also found that over half – 53 per cent – with a pension would use a free online retirement planning tool to help them decide what to do with their pension savings, while a quarter said they would pay a reasonable fee to use an online retirement planning advice service from a financial services company.
The People’s Pension director of business development Roy Porter says: “We know advisers play a really important role in helping people make decisions about their individual circumstances at retirement if members choose to engage with them, so we’ll continue to promote traditional options with our members when they contact us at retirement as well as the online service.
“Our research suggests that a lot of people are not taking advice at the moment. Whether that’s because of cost, lack of awareness or fear, it’s creating a big guidance and advice gap which needs to be filled.
“That’s why we’re really excited to be working with LV= to launch these new options for our members. The free guidance report should help savers assess their options, and at just £49 for detailed online retirement advice, this brings an additional affordable choice for our members to help them obtain a good outcome from their retirement savings.”
LV= managing director of retirement solutions John Perks says: “We think this is a global first. We have not seen anything else that offers regulated retirement advice across such complex matters.
“We’ve found that nearly half a million people retire each year without taking advice, meaning they could be losing out. At present there is a lack of affordable, accessible, quality advice but LV= has been at the forefront of finding innovative ways to make it easier for people to take advice.
“LV= is delighted to be working with The People’s Pension to offer their members a convenient, affordable solution and help make regulated advice more accessible, even for those with smaller pots.”
