People need pension advice the most

Friday, 17 February 2006 12:00

Pensions are the top reason people go to financial advisers, new figures show.

According to IFA Promotion in the final three months of 2005 more than a third of all people going to see independent financial advisers (IFAs) were prompted to go by pension concerns.

With major changes to the UK pension system coming into effect on April 6th (known as 'A-Day'), this increase in people seeking advice has been seen as a positive development.

But December's increase in people seeking pensions advice was less than at the same time last year.

David Elms, IFA Promotion's chief executive, commented: "At the time of our last report, we expressed our hope that in the following months, the A-Day message would have begun to hit home and that people would be taking more active steps to review their pension arrangements in advance of April's far-reaching reforms."

"However, despite A-Day awareness tripling, it is still not attracting the action that one might expect and many may well miss out as a result."

Away from pensions, IFA Promotion recorded a 23 per cent increase in the number of people going to see advisers, with savings and investments, mortgages, and stakeholder pensions being the most popular reason to seek advice - after personal retirement planning.

"The encouraging news is of course that we were able to put well over half a million people in touch with a local IFA to best suit their needs last year," Mr Elms concluded.

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