The topic for debate at our most recent Young(er) Adviser roundtable was Centralised Retirement Propositions (CRP) and decumulation strategies.
What was most interesting was the lack of demand for a dedicated CRP – nine out of 10 of the attendees didn’t use one and didn’t intend to. It wasn’t so much that they disagreed with them, more that they were a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, believing they were unnecessary for managing their retired clients.
What did become apparent though, is the level of hand-holding the advisers need to do with clients as they approach retirement. This is where advisers really earn their fees. You can find out more about the conclusions from our event in this recent article I wrote for FT Adviser (read it here).
If you’re strapped for time and can’t read the article, here’s some feedback that stood out for me:
- “Retirement is full of jargon which is hard for clients to understand – part of an adviser’s skill is helping to demystify that”
- “People are living longer – society needs to adjust to this. In the old days you retired at 65 and didn’t worry about your pension pot because you didn’t have long left to live, now you could easily live to 90”
- “Don’t start with the product. Ask clients the right questions to help them think about retirement in the right way. They need to be clear on what is important to them”
- “If your client intends to pass their pension on to their children (or grandchildren) it should be invested in line with the inheritor’s risk profile, not their own”
- “Clients shouldn’t be saving unnecessarily. We should help clients to enjoy retirement and encourage the bucket list”
If you would like to see the full notes from the Young Adviser session, or would like to be invited to the next one (don’t let age be a barrier!), please do get in touch via engagement@portfoliometrix.co.uk.
