What advisers should look out for in 2020
By Robbie Lawther, 2 Jan 20
Aegon’s Steven Cameron shares his views about what the sector can expect from the FCA in the next year
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It looks inevitable that the UK will leave the European Union at the end of January.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be busy dealing with the implementation and after-effects of Brexit.
But, the FCA will have to make sure it devotes enough time and resources to other areas of the financial services sector.
So, what should it priotise in 2020?
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, has set out his ‘pick’ of what advisers should be looking out for from the UK financial watchdog this year.
“It will be updating its own regulations and rulebooks and checking the industry is making all the necessary preparations and taking all the required actions.
“But again, like government and industry, it has an agenda that goes far beyond Brexit.”
Defined benefit
The first of his suggestions is advice to defined benefit (DB) pension members.
“In Q1, we’ll get the next (and for now hopefully final) set of regulations relating to advice on defined benefit transfers. The big concern is, no matter how well intentioned the latest interventions are, there’s a risk of dramatically reducing the supply of advice in this key area,” said Cameron.
“We’ll soon know if the FCA is proceeding with its proposed ban on contingent charging and how the carve outs for certain vulnerable individuals will work.
“Importantly, I hope to see some development of the ‘abridged advice’ proposals, ideally making this approach more cost effective and safe for advisers to use to weed out those who should not be considering transferring.
“We’ll also see how strongly the FCA will expect advisers to favour workplace pensions over individual pensions as the receiving vehicle. This will all come alongside further suitability assessment work.”
