Consumer Duty Focus – Retirement and Later Life

With the forthcoming thematic review of retirement income advice, there is a huge focus on putting a robust plan together. This should meet the outcomes of the Consumer Duty for a client, based on all the information on file. But it’s not just about the hard data - it’s also about understanding the characteristics of the client, their need for flexibility and a range of retirement goals.

And it doesn’t end after the initial plan has been put in place…

The Personal Finance Society’s Good Practice Guide on Income Drawdown states that ‘firms should scope out, document and follow a defined process that is able to evolve. It must include a process to cover the onboarding of new clients and a robust review for existing clients’.
In this session, we’ll look at a number of ideas as well as industry guidance to show how to review a client’s plan throughout retirement and into later life. We’ll also consider what the regulation tells us about service design and segmentation to ensure that the process remains aligned to each client.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine the key factors in a review process
• Discuss key industry guidance on good practice relating to pension reviews
• Recognise the impact of health, ageing and other client characteristics

CPD: 45 minutes

The Consumer Duty makes it clear that all clients should receive good outcomes, including those in vulnerable circumstances. Whilst vulnerability isn’t confined to those in later life, it is important to understand and respond to characteristics and circumstances that may be present.

There are many things a firm can do to protect clients from foreseeable harm in later life. Perhaps one of the most obvious is to ensure that a Power of Attorney is in place should it be needed. The duties of attorneys and the role they play needs to be clearly understood. Capacity can fluctuate, so knowing how much assistance is needed and how this can vary depending on the specific decision is important. There are a number of safeguards that can be put in place and advisers with a good knowledge in this area can really help to create a supportive environment for clients and their families.

In this session, Graham Duffy speaks to Tish Hanifan about ways to identify areas of vulnerability and how clients and families can be supported in later life.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognise the main duties of attorneys
• Understand how family members may be involved in the advice process
• Discuss the nuances of capacity and client decision-making

CPD: 45 minutes

If ever there was a time to focus on how we improve the experience and outcomes for the most vulnerable, surely now is that time. The FCA have said that they want doing the right thing for vulnerable customers to be deeply embedded into firms. That means we all have a part to play.

Looking towards the full implementation of the Consumer Duty, we need to demonstrate a genuine culture that will promote good outcomes for consumers including those in vulnerable circumstances. It’s important that we respond to the current needs of clients, but also establish practices that can be developed over the long-term.

This session is packed with information, strategies and examples of good practice designed to help you to respond to the needs of clients in vulnerable situations. Just will introduce you to valuable resources that advisers, paraplanners and other staff can use to take practical action. Everyone has experiences to share and we hope that discussing these areas will help you to identify some action points which will help clients and the firm too.

Learning Objectives:

• Review the key steps from the FCA’s guidance on consumer vulnerability
• Understand the links between vulnerability and the Consumer Duty
• Identify some key action points to implement in relation to consumer vulnerability

CPD: 45 minutes