The vast majority of retired people gave up work without seeking help from either a financial adviser, their workplace, or the government’s free pension service, according to new figures from Just Group.
It found that just one in 10 retired, or semi-retired workers (aged 55 plus) sought advice from their own financial adviser. A further 4 per cent saw an adviser recommended through their employer’s pension scheme, while 4 per cent used the free government-backed Pension Wise guidance.
Among those aged 55-64 just 9 per cent used Pension Wise, far below government targets to make this routine before accessing retirement benefits.
In contrast four out of 10 retirement words said the conducted their own review of their personal finances to assess income and outgoings. This figure was almost twice as high among men (51 per cent) than women (27 per cent).
Nearly one-third (30 per cent) of people said they didn’t do any financial assessments prior to retirement. This rose to half (51 per cent) of those who retired when they started to receive the state pension. And one in eight (13 per cent) said they had no time to plan because they were forced to retire.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group says: “Stopping full-time work is a huge financial step and involves complex choices. Yet most people take a DIY approach and go it alone rather than engaging professional help.
“While not everybody will have access to an adviser or will want to pay for regulated advice, that doesn’t explain the very low number benefitting from the free guidance from Pension Wise which is available to all those aged 50+ with a defined contribution pension.”
