Standard Life today outlines top ten tips for advisers in the wake of pension freedoms.

The tips are designed to highlight immediate risks and opportunities as well as longer term strategic considerations to help advisers support more clients in achieving their goals. Urgent action is suggested to ensure pension death benefits are not lost due to legacy pension contracts, and, ISA assets are transferred to pensions as clients approach retirement to benefit from tax relief.

The ten tips encompass death benefits, tax, investment solutions, due diligence, policies and controls:

  1. Find out if you have clients that could miss out - review legacy pensions to understand which contracts can support new flexibilities on death
  2. Prepare to transfer pensions that do not support death benefits as soon as possible and consider aggregating pension assets with other client assets
  3. Review all pension bypass trust arrangements and death benefit nominations to ensure they are up-to-date
  4. Review ISAs to establish whether the client would benefit from transferring to a pension to access tax relief
  5. Develop a tax optimisation policy for assets being invested pre-retirement; outlining which wrappers should be prioritised and why
  6. Enhance your CIP to meet the needs of clients in retirement - reflect the difference between short, medium and long term monies and protect your clients from the devastating long term impact of a short term market fall in the early years of retirement
  7. Develop an income optimisation policy for withdrawals; document the order of wrappers and investment portfolios used to support withdrawals to minimise tax and investment risk
  8. Agree a clear withdrawal policy with your clients documenting the sustainable asset harvesting approach you have agreed
  9. Document your end to end retirement advice service for clients highlighting the measures you are taking to ensure the sustainability of their investment portfolio
  10. Review due diligence against your new documented proposition to ensure your business model for clients exercising retirement freedoms is well supported by your providers

David Tiller, Head of Adviser Propositions and Strategy at Standard Life, said: 'We really have entered the golden age for advisers who now have the opportunity to provide more of the population with advice when they need it most. This need has never been greater and it is vitally important the industry works together to ensure that people can access the help they need.'

'Client needs in retirement are fundamentally different and adviser businesses need to consider how to deliver what is often perceived to be complex advice in a scalable and controlled manner. This demands clear and defined processes and policies around tax optimisation, investment volatility management, tax wrapper and portfolio targeting, client withdrawal policy and estate planning.'

'By putting together a clearly defined proposition and business processes built for clients in retirement, I believe the efficiencies realised will allow advisers to offer a top quality service to more retired clients and manage their business risks more effectively. These ten tips are designed to prompt thought around some of things advisers may want to look at.'

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

Patricia Corrigan
Direct:0131 245 5916
Mobile:0774 092 4558
Email: patricia_corrigan@standardlife.com

Notes to editors

  • Standard Life Wrap was named Platform of the Year 2014 at the prestigious Aberdeen UK Platform Awards on 30 September 2014. It was also voted Best Large Platform Provider (AUM over £12.5 billion) by the adviser community at the same ceremony.
  • Adviserzone is Standard Life's dedicated extranet site for UK financial advisers. Visitwww.adviserzone.comfor more details.
  • Standard Life plc is a leading long term investment savings business, dedicated to helping to build a more prosperous world and enabling people to have confidence in their own future. This has been important to Standard Life since it was established in Edinburgh in 1825.
  • Standard Life is a global business, employing around 6,500 people internationally, through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
  • Around 4.5 million customers worldwide trust Standard Life with their financial future, and it supports a further 20 million customers through its Chinese and Indian joint venture businesses. The business is responsible for the administration of £312 billion of assets on behalf of its customers and clients (as at the end of March 2015).
  • Wherever Standard Life operates in the world, it is motivated by a sense of responsibility. That is what has helped it be a sustainable business over the long term. Standard Life is proud to be listed as a leader for corporate sustainability in its industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI World and DJSI Europe).
  • The Standard Life Investments brand offers truly global asset management expertise with strong investment capabilities.
  • In the UK, Standard Life offers a range of individual and group pensions, SIPPs, ISAs, annuities, life assurance, offshore bonds, investment management, wealth management, tax and estate planning services. By understanding and offering innovative products and the right support, Standard Life makes it easier for its customers and clients to plan ahead and feel more confident about the future.
  • Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has approximately 1.3 million individual shareholders in over 50 countries around the world. It is also one of the top 500 companies worldwide, by revenue, as listed in the 2014 Fortune Global 500.
  • You can follow Standard Life group on twitter onwww.twitter.com/StandardLifeplc
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