Pension providers see 'surge' in income drawdown

Selectapension, the pension and investment software provider, has seen a 57% surge in the number of drawdown cases being analysed by advisers in the first week following the pension freedoms.

The data indicates that pension freedoms have also sparked a trend for a broader spectrum of consumers to investigate drawdown as their preferred retirement income route. Selectapension has seen an increasing number of advisers reviewing drawdown as an option for clients with smaller pension pots.

Longer-term, the data also suggests that this trend is not just a knee-jerk reaction to the pension reforms by consumers. Selectapension has witnessed a surge in demand from advisers to have a demonstration of the technology provider’s Flexible Retirement Optimiser tool. The increase in take-up illustrates that advisers are keen to embrace the latest drawdown tools, ready for any client questions.

Andy McCabe, Managing Director at Selectapension, commented:

“From our six years of experience in the drawdown market, we have been expecting that more consumers would tune into the benefits of drawdown, and the pension reforms have created a catalyst for this.

“It is clear that the retirement market is changing for good. Advisers need to use this as an opportunity to demonstrate the value they can add to a client’s long-term investment. At Selectapension, we support the adviser community by adding the latest retirement products to our system as soon as they are on the market. We have also linked with Assureweb to provide live annuity quotations, so the analysis of clients’ income options in retirement can all be done in one place at the same time. This enables advisers to deal with the additional client requests about this retirement income option.”

Chris Wilson, Group Risk and Governance Manager, CAERUS Financial Ltd, added:

“The new pension freedom rules give clients more flexibility in how they draw their pension benefits than ever before. Advisers need to be equipped to help clients make important financial decisions and the Flexible Retirement Optimiser offers the functionality to review different scenarios, including accurate annuity quotes, via a tool which many of our firms are already familiar with having used other modules within the range.”