The Client Advice Journey

Via a secure login, you can register for your own journey to explore whether obtaining advice on your deferred Defined Benefit pension is suitable for you.

You will be asked to complete our customer privacy notice, to consent to basic information being held on our systems. This will cover all information given further along in the process should you decide to proceed to appointing Pension Income Planning Ltd to provide advice.

Your personal journey can be ended, by you, at any time.

This section is designed to provide guidance to give a potential client enough information about Safeguarded e.g. Defined Benefit / Final Salary and flexible benefits to enable them to make a decision on whether to take advice on a transfer of pension benefits.

2A Read our Triage Document: 

This gives generic information about Defined Benefit pensions schemes and flexible benefits offered within alternative arrangements. It provides a balanced view of some of the key advantages and disadvantages of each.

2B Read and complete our DB Information Document online: 

This is a non-advised process, aimed at getting the client to consider the various questions that arise when considering seeking advice and helping them decide on the factors that are of importance to them.

2C Watch the Free FCA Information Video: 

A link is provided within the client journey, to a free FCA video, providing a completely independent view of the DB advice process and what a client should be aware of when seeking DB pensions advice. (You will not be stopped from progressing if you do not complete this stage.)

2D Register for and watch the Money Alive videos:

Transferring a Defined Benefit / final salary scheme into a personal pension is one of life’s major decisions and you should have enough information to make a fully informed choice. At Pension Income Planning Ltd it is a requirement that you take advantage of the Money Alive educational video journey. Registration is accessed via the link provided within the Client Journey. You will be sent a separate link to access the videos. (You will not be stopped from progressing through the client journey, whilst you complete this stage, although this must be completed before the advice meeting.)

The Money Alive program provides a series of 3-5-minute videos that can be viewed at your own pace and lasts 1 hour 12 minutes in total. Investing this time will make our meetings so much easier for you, as you will have a better understanding of the pros and cons of considering a transfer from your scheme.

At a cost of just £75 inclusive of any VAT, this will be money well spent, enhancing your understanding and your own peace of mind.

If having completed the information and education section, a client believes that paying for advice regarding their deferred DB scheme benefits is appropriate, they will be directed, within the Client Journey, to complete the necessary paperwork, including an Initial Client Confidential Questionnaire, to apply to Pension Income Planning Ltd to arrange a meeting for Abridged Advice.

The client will also commit to pay our Abridged Advice fee when submitting their documents. This fee is £800 + VAT (£960 gross) for one transfer value. Where there are 2 or more periods of service these are chargeable as separate transfer values.

Abridged Advice is a low-cost option to enable a client to access advice about their scheme, their needs and objectives and help them better understand their deferred benefits, without committing immediately to the higher costs of Full Advice.

The client may decide after Abridged Advice that they do not need Full Advice and therefore will only have paid a smaller fee.

All documents can be completed and signed online and are then submitted electronically to Pension Income Planning Ltd.’s administration team who will be in touch in due course.

A new case is assigned a case handler, who, in the first instance, will acknowledge receipt of the case, load it to our bespoke systems and confirm the next steps. A Letter of Authority will be sent to the scheme along with a prepared letter from the client requesting certain information. If there is a workplace pension scheme, we will also send the Letter of Authority to the scheme administrators.

A copy of the Initial Client Confidential Questionnaire will be provided to the client to confirm the details held. Any changes or updates to the information should be notified to Pension Income Planning Ltd.

Both client and introducer will be regularly updated with the progress of the case.

If the initial information received from the scheme administrators is incomplete or raises more questions, we will try to resolve this ourselves using a scheme information library that we have purchased. However, on occasion we will need to refer back to the scheme trustees, which can cause delays in the process and on the speed of the transfer. 

When all the information we need to create an Abridged Advice meeting has been provided, we will complete our analysis and arrange a face-to-face meeting between the client and one of our pension transfer specialists (PTS), who will present and discuss the findings and discuss client needs and objectives. Meetings are generally held via Zoom but can be held face-to-face at our offices in Brentwood, Essex. All meetings are fully video recorded. Copies are available to client and introducer on request.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) believe it will be in most people’s best interests to keep their DB pension.This must therefore be our starting point when providing advice on DB pensions.

Our role is to determine whether the client’s deferred DB scheme benefits can meet the client’s needs and objectives. This meeting will therefore concentrate on the benefits of the scheme and will not consider any potential alternatives.

A conclusion will be reached that, either the scheme benefits can meet the client's needs and objectives and therefore the recommendation is not to transfer, or it is unclear whether the scheme benefits can meet the client's needs and objectives.

In the latter scenario, the client may choose to progress to Full Advice, which will provide a more in-depth analysis and compare benefits against a workplace scheme and any other potential alternative.

A full Abridged Advice recommendation report will be issued, confirming the conclusion reached and verbally communicated, at the Abridged Advice meeting, by our Pension Transfer Specialist. This bespoke report will detail our analysis of your deferred benefits and of your circumstances, needs and objectives. We will ask for a signed acknowledgement for the advice report.

Where the conclusion of Abridged Advice is ‘unclear’ i.e. it cannot be determined whether staying in the scheme MAY be most suitable, the client may choose to continue to Full Advice and commit to the associated fees.

Full Advice builds on the information gathered and analysed in the Abridged Advice process, before conducting an analysis of alternatives that may better meet a client's needs and objectives.

All fees chargeable for Full Advice will be confirmed in a Personalised Charges Document which is produced for the individual client, based on a known transfer value. These fees are not contingent on a transfer of deferred scheme benefits being recommended and are therefore payable by the client regardless of the outcome of the Full Advice process. The net fee paid for Abridged Advice will be offset against the Full Advice fee and is plan specific, where we are analysing the benefits of more than one deferred DB scheme. For example: An Abridged Advice fee of £800 + VAT is paid. Where the client progresses to Full Advice, we will offset the £800 against the Full Advice fee, retaining the VAT element.

The information already gathered is subject to further in-depth analysis and comparison against transfer to a workplace scheme where applicable and any other potential destination of funds. We will also produce a Pension Transfer Analysis Report, cashflow modelling and a Transfer Value Comparator as required by the FCA.

Although the client has now made the decision to pay for Full Advice, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stance remains that it will be in most people’s best interests to keep their DB pension. There must therefore be no pre-supposition that Full Advice will result in a recommendation to transfer.

Where it was unclear from Abridged Advice whether the scheme benefits can meet the client’s needs and objectives, our role is to test this further and compare against any potential alternatives, to recommend the most suitable outcome for the client.

A conclusion will be reached that, either the scheme benefits can meet the client’s needs and objectives and therefore the recommendation is not to transfer, or a recommendation of a transfer of scheme benefits to a non-guaranteed product.

Regardless of the outcome of the Full Advice, a recommendation report will be issued, confirming the conclusion reached and verbally communicated, at the Full Advice meeting, by our Pension Transfer Specialist. This bespoke report will detail our analysis of the client's deferred benefits, circumstances, needs and objectives and the preferred destination for transferred funds. We will ask for a signed acknowledgement from the client for the advice report.

Where our recommendation is not to transfer, our file will be closed. The client is entitled to a letter, confirming that advice has been given. If this is required, it can be provided once our fees for Full Advice have been paid in full.

Where the advice is to remain within the DB scheme, our file will be closed and no further contact will be made, unless there is any agreement to revisit the advice later.

However, if the client disagrees and our recommendation has been based on not enough information from the client, they can gather and supply further evidence and we will offer a further free meeting to revisit the advice. Alternatively, the client may decide to defer further advice until a later date.

Where the recommendation is to transfer, we will have a further short recorded meeting with the client to complete the paperwork.

We will reiterate all warnings and obtain client confirmation of understanding. We will reconfirm that Pension Income Planning Ltd are responsible for the actual advice, to ensure that the client is aware that the introducer is not culpable for any issues relating to the transfer suitability in the event of any claim company trawling the DB transfer advice market in the future.

After an agreed cooling-off period, Pension Income Planning Ltd will submit the paperwork, liaising with both the ceding scheme and the new provider to facilitate the transfer.

Once we have confirmation that the scheme funds have been received by the new provider, we will arrange for the payment of any Pension Commencement Lump Sum (PCLS) and our fees. Remaining funds will be invested in accordance with the agreed strategy. If regular income is required from the outset, we will leave this to be arranged by the client’s own IFA.

Introduced Clients

Pension Income Planning Ltd do not offer ongoing servicing or tax advice to introduced clients and would not recommend a transfer without prior knowledge of the client’s intentions regarding this, post-transfer.

Once the process has completed, the client should complete a Letter of Authority to inform the new provider that the client’s own IFA is to take over the servicing of the transferred funds. The IFA will then provide ongoing service and advice in accordance with the agreed fees for that service. Pension Income Planning Ltd will have no further relationship with the client, our file will be closed, and no further advice will be provided. It is important that the client agrees this with their IFA as quickly as possible, as we cannot leave a client in limbo without access to ongoing advice.

Please see our FAQ section or call the office on 01277 600518 with any queries you may have.

Direct Clients

Pension Income Planning Ltd will offer ongoing servicing to direct clients.

Your commitment will be to have an annual zoom meeting with Pension Income Planning Ltd to discuss funds, performance and keeping your plans on track.

You will also seek advice before taking income or lump sums from the funds and depleting the pot. This will apply to self-investors and investors where Pension Income Planning Ltd have made the fund recommendations.

Alternatively you may select an IFA who you trust to address the ongoing servicing.