Three headlines this week which should give rise to at least a bit of concern amongst the adviser community. More than should be are taking money, taxable as well as tax-free, from their pensions without taking advice; which might be fine, but how it’s done can have a big effect on both tax and what might be left for the future. We also heard that DIY ‘we don’t give advice’ platform Hargreaves Lansdown have seen their new business triple so far this year; while oft-maligned industry giant St James Place’s business has halved. Now many of those pension and other DIY-ers may not be deemed, or may not feel they’re worthy or sizeable enough to become clients of your average financial adviser. But in the end, many will end up saving perhaps 1% in charges and losing much more in other ways, through tax or poor investment choices. A potential lose-lose for many, I’m afraid.
“Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation”
I suspect that many a ‘boomer’ might be pleased with the ‘problem generation’ label. When they were teen- or twenty-somethings, their parents’ generation may well have either despaired of them or worried about the world into which they were emerging as adults; it will ever be thus.