Danny Cox, chartered financial planner at Hargreaves Lansdown said that exit penalties have been a “thorn in the pension industry’s side” for many years, adding that the consultation will serve as a wakeup call to providers who have not updated their pension schemes since the 1990s.
“Too many pension providers aren’t offering the new flexibilities or making it sufficiently easy for their customers to take their money elsewhere, he said. “Providers should not restrict those who want to move to the low cost and highly flexible pensions of today.
The barriers to pension freedoms need to be removed so that investors who have shopped around can move their money quickly and cheaply, without having to pay unreasonable exit penalties.”
