Is your income drawdown solution robust enough?

It looks to me that the regulator is starting 2020 with clients approaching and in retirement as a clear priority.

The Dear CEO letter could not state more clearly their plans to review the suitability of advice. In particular, the FCA highlighted that “the review will focus on initial and ongoing advice to consumers on taking an income in retirement”, adding that “The evolving market has changed significantly following the pensions freedoms reforms and we want to assess the outcomes consumers are receiving.”

Indeed, following the introduction of the pension freedoms, many firms were quick to recognise that without a robust post-retirement plan there was a genuine risk that clients could run out of money at retirement. This is why we have seen many firms build or are well on the way to building a Centralised Retirement Proposition (CRP) to tackle the challenges posed by the pension freedoms.

While advisers have been quick off the mark to recognise and respond, product providers are still somewhat lagging behind and there continues to be a distinct lack of choice in solutions on offer to support advisers with their CRPs.

To compound matters, not all income drawdown solutions have been created equally. A robust solution should not only be cost effective and scalable but also have the ability to adapt to clients’ evolving needs, as well as manage sequencing risk and the risk of running out of money. Not all solutions tick all of these boxes.

At 7IM we have built a Retirement Income Service (RIS) which we believe is unique. It is built upon a repeatable and robust process that concentrates on outcomes for clients in retirement, offering the best chance of success.

We understand that a RIS has to be designed to reflect real life – where circumstances change and flexibility is crucial – but without adding complexity or cost. We also know that it is critical that the service is scalable and easy to use, yet immensely sophisticated behind the scenes.

For example, our RIS rebalances across the overall portfolio and multiple tax wrappers, so your clients are in the right place, at the right time, across all their holdings. We believe you won’t find this anywhere else.

We’d love to tell you more about our Retirement Income Service and answer your questions. Call us on 020 3823 8829 or email: retirementincome@7im.co.uk for more information.