Later life advisers have the opportunity to broaden their range of services to clients reaching, or in, retirement from a “silo approach” to “an ensemble” proposition in order to cover a much wider range of needs.
That was the view of Tony Miles from the Personal Finance Society (PFS) who was speaking yesterday at the inaugural National Later Life Adviser Conference, which was held at the Gloucester Rugby Club Business Centre at Gloucester’s ground, Kingsholm.
Miles outlined how those in retirement, and those facing up to funding their retirement living, now face a far longer “transitional journey rather than a specific retirement marked at a moment in time”. He argued that the concept of ‘retirement’ would increasingly be viewed as a 20th century concept which would be replaced by periods of employment, leisure, and care.
“The three-stage traditional period of life – education, employment and retirement – is being undermined by a series of forces of change,” said Miles. “These include the transfer of risk from the State to the individual, increased longevity, technology and legislation which all add a deeper layer of complexity. Pension freedoms in particular has been a game changer in terms of how people manager their assets and retirement income.”
Miles suggested that advisers have a big question to answer in terms of how they meet the more complex needs of those in later life. “Do we specialise or do we provide a broad and comprehensive range of services?” he asked. “If the latter, then do we provide all those in-house or do we selectively outsource?”
He also suggested that advisers have an advantage in providing a range of services to later life clients because “most consumers want one entry point for advice”.
“Access to advice is always a critical issue,” he said. “In that sense, professional, valuable and engaging later life advice is increasingly an ensemble proposition. This single point of entry proposition is not new – just look at the supermarkets and companies like Amazon – and customer’s experience is being shaped by their retail experience.”
Miles said he is already seeing firms transfer from silos – just offering pensions or mortgage or equity release advice – to holistic, integrated financial advice, however suggested the next big move would be to “holistic life planning” covering off not just financial advice areas, but legal, care, accountancy, and many others.
He added: “An increasing number of clients transitioning into later life will be on a much longer journey than perhaps they anticipated. Clients will need advisers help in a slightly different way and taking the ensemble approach means working hand-in-hand with other specialists.”