RDR – Disappointment at lack of progress on GPPs

In its RDR feedback statement published yesterday the FSA says it will only consider Adviser Charging – the new name for Customer Agreed Remuneration – on GPPs where advisers are actually giving advice to employees.
Providers are concerned that because GPPs are technically a bundle of individual pension plans then the RDR could require the Adviser Charging process to be followed when every single new member joins an employer-sponsored scheme. Aegon has been lobbying for a determination that the employer be named as the customer in GPPs and not the employee for the purposes of RDR-related regulation.
Rachel Vahey, head of pensions development at Aegon says: “GPPs do not exist as legal entities. You are currently looking at a group of personal pensions. It is disappointing we will have to wait until June 2009 before we get any progress on the corporate side.”