Government unveils guidance guarantee brand

The free, impartial guidance will be provided by The Pensions Advisory Service and Citizens Advice, which will be up and running in time for April.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:

"The Pension wise service will be key to helping people understand where they are with their pension and what options are available to them.

"The new Pensions wise brand will give people the confidence to make sure they get their pensions guidance from an official provider.

"Citizens Advice has a strong track record of helping people get to grips with complex issues, including pensions. In the last year our bureaux helped people with almost 80,000 pension issues and over 200,000 people came to our Adviceguide website for pensions information."

Ros Altmann, the Government's business champion for older workers, said:

"It is absolutely right that we invest in helping people make the best decisions with their retirement savings.

"Until now there has been no help with the complex decisions people face when they reach pension age and, at last, there is an independent source of help to point people in the right direction."

Andrew Tully, Pensions Technical Director, MGM Advantage, said:

"Pension Wise should be the first step on the advice ladder for anyone approaching retirement and thinking about their options. From April, the new freedoms actually create additional complexity as well as choice. People would be wise to seek professional financial advice before making any decisions about their pensions. My biggest fear is many people won’t seek any sort of advice, either professional or through Pension Wise. In these situations, it is highly likely people will fall back on the well-entrenched existing sales practises which we know don’t provide the best customer outcomes.

"We need a second line of defence, where people who don’t seek guidance or advice, are made fully aware of the decisions they are taking. We need to work hard to make these changes a success, but without the appropriate checks and balances in place, it is quite possible many people will receive poorer value from their pensions than now."