Wealth Wizards has added a covid–19 financial survival toolkit to its advice platform to help people impacted by the lockdown.
The module includes guidance in areas such as how to cope if your work situation changes and creating a new household budget.
It is part of Wealth Wizards’ advice engine Turo, which can be used in collaboration with a financial adviser or can be accessed directly by customers of financial institutions, such as banks and building societies.
Users are able to find solutions to their queries digitally either within the platform or via links to trustworthy sources of information and education.
In more complex cases, the toolkit can act as a triage tool, directing the customer to a financial adviser.
The technology, including the toolkit, can be white-labelled to fit any company’s brand and tone of voice.
Reassure customers
Andrew Firth, chief executive at Wealth Wizards, said: “The volatile markets, job losses and general havoc being caused by coronavirus have led to many people feeling anxious, frustrated and stressed about their finances.
“As a result, customer services teams throughout the country are being inundated with calls from worried customers and clients who are concerned about their money and need some reassurance.
“Reaching out digitally can help both by plugging holes in the resources of overstretched businesses and by connecting with people when they are stuck at home in the lockdown and feeling helpless.
“Many of us just need a comforting arm around the shoulder and this is exactly what our covid–19 financial survival toolkit provides.”
Pension review
Elsewhere in the sector, Scotland-based financial planning firm Cornerstone Asset Management has launched a free pension review service.
The aim of Snapshot is to provide people with the key information they need about how their pension is performing.
It offers a simple summary of the key factors which might affect a person’s retirement pot with the overall objective of encouraging more to save efficiently.
Snapshot’s report outlines:
- How individual pension investments have performed over the past five years, or since the investment began;
- What progress funds have made over the period, which might ultimately impact a retirement pot; and
- Income levels.
To complete the process, customers provide Snapshot with some personal details, give consent to contact their pension provider and gather the information needed to analyse their pension and prepare a detailed report.
Report analysis
Each report provides analysis of three key factors which have a significant impact on determining what an individual could receive on retirement:
- Charges, which eat into investment returns with some plans being considerably more expensive than others;
- Investment risk, a key factor in how a pension will grow as well as governing how values might fall; and
- Funds’ previous performance, which illustrates how much investment performance has historically added or taken away from a pension pot’s value.
Impact
Jason Hemmings, founding partner of Cornerstone Asset Management, said: “Sadly, the current coronavirus crisis and the tragic impact it’s having on people’s health and employment prospects has brought the subject of pensions and retirement pots into sharp focus.
“Snapshot is a unique free service which provides an opportunity for people to get an unbiased analysis of their pension situation and give them the information they need to make informed decisions on their future.”
