On Tuesday, Hargreaves Lansdown unveiled a flat-fee retirement planning service for UK consumers which, it said, aims to plug the ‘advice gap’ by helping investors make decisions about using the new pension freedoms.
The cost of the service – which does not provide specific or personal recommendations – has a flat fee of £395, which includes an hour with a financial adviser who highlights key issues to be considered by the saver.
If an investor decides to move into a full advice service, then this fee will be deducted from the extra cost.
Overturned conventions
With approximately 120,000 investors a year on the hunt for low-cost advice, the Bristol-based financial services firm hopes the HL Retirement Planning Service will tap into this market.
“The pension freedoms have fundamentally changed the pension system, overturning many established conventions around how and when investors draw on their retirement savings,” said Tom McPhail, head of pensions research.
Although the Pension Wise service similarly provides investors with an introduction to the key issues they need to think about, McPhail said the HL Retirement Planning Service takes investors a stage further.
Meanwhile, the free pension support specialist Key Retirement has announced the expansion of its online service which, it said, aims to tackle savers’ confusion about the new freedoms.
