As part of his shake up of the annuity market, the Chancellor promised that that all people on defined contribution plans will no longer be forced to buy an annuity. Under these plans, he promised that everyone will be offered free and impartial advice.
The challenge facing the pension market is how the sector can provide cost effective delivery of this advice. Research conducted by Vizolution has indicated that a face to face advice session with a customer costs the adviser firm £250-500 depending on travel time and cost of the adviser, making it uneconomic to advise customers with limited funds.
Vizolution states that advisers and pension firms can use vScreen to advise clients remotely while providing them with almost the same level of visual engagement that you would have in a face-to-face meeting. Furthermore, with each session recorded and through the use of electronic signatures a compliance evidenced process can be ensured.
vScreen has been especially designed for financial services after several years of in-depth research into satisfying compliance requirements. Every screen can be branded and designed by the company using it and all the content can be pre-compliance approved to ensure that it covers every element of the advice necessary for people approaching retirement in a way that is 100% compliant.
IFAs and pension advisers using vScreen can use calculators and pictures to help them illustrate and explain the options open to different people when buying an annuity and what it means to their future retirement income. Every vScreen session is time and date stamped and can be stored using very little bandwidth to prove both FCA compliance and help guard against any potential miss selling claims in the future.
Bill Safran, CEO of Vizolution says:
“With the removal of the compulsion to purchase an annuity there has never been a greater need for consumers to receive appropriate advice. Additionally, should an annuity still be wanted consumers need to be made aware of the huge choice available and the benefit of shopping around to find the best deal. Therefore the simpler and more visually explicit the different options can be made, the more someone will become aware of their choices and the significant difference it can make to their future income.”
