The FCA has published Policy Statement 15/17: Pension Wise – recommendation policy (PS15/17). In PS15/17 the FCA summarises the feedback received to Consultation Paper 15/12: Pension Wise – recommendation policy and publishes final policy.

The 2014 Budget announced fundamental changes to the options consumers will have for accessing their direct contribution pension savings at retirement. From 6 April 2015, consumers from the age of 55 will be able to:

• take their pension savings as cash;
• buy an annuity;
• use drawdown but without any limits applied; and
• use a combination of these.

To support these changes, the Government has introduced Pension Wise to help consumers make informed decisions on how they use their pension savings in retirement. The organisations appointed as designated guidance providers for Pension Wise are not regulated as authorised firms by the FCA. However, the Government has placed a duty on the FCA to set standards and to monitor the designated guidance providers’ performance against these standards. The FCA has powers to require information for these purposes and, where designated guidance providers are in breach of the standards, to make recommendations to the designated guidance providers and HM Treasury as necessary.

View PS15/17: Pension Wise – recommendation policy, 3 July 2015