"There aren’t enough advisers for the hundreds of thousands of people starting their life after work, many of whom have modest assets and are reluctant to pay the premium fees for traditional advice."
Destination Retirement will provide regulated financial advice to people starting, or transitioning into, their life after work. The new service is available to employers, pension scheme trustees and corporate partners who want to deliver the benefits of regulated advice to their colleagues, members and customers as part of their benefits offering.
Just Group says the service is "consumer-led rather than product-led". Customers detail the life outcomes they are seeking and then models run repeated cash flow calculations across a range of asset strategies to deliver the optimum solution for each customer’s requirements.
Mercer has selected Destination Retirement to provide automated financial advice to its UK corporate clients.
David Cooper, chief executive of HUB Group, said: “Millions of customers accessing pension money risk sleepwalking into poorer retirements by failing to take financial advice.
“Destination Retirement is a game-changing automated advice service which has been specifically created to help engage, educate and deliver bespoke solutions and ongoing advice at modest cost to customers who otherwise would not seek professional help.
“The customer tells us what they want to achieve in their life after work and when they want to do it and we identify the best financial plan to make that happen for them, using a combination of products such as pension drawdown, ISAs, guaranteed income for life solutions and general investment accounts.
“It is as thorough as traditional face-to-face advice, and takes into account factors such as nonpension wealth, tax-planning, spouse’s pensions. It is delivered at each individual customer’s convenience and with complete consistency and clarity across an entire customer base.
“It goes beyond digital wealth management to capture people’s attention at a key time of their lives, to provide education, initial financial advice with personal recommendations, full execution and an ongoing review service.
“It is flexible and configurable and can be deployed in a way to mirror the preferences and requirements of the client.
“Financial advisers will always be in demand because many people value that personal, human touch. But there aren’t enough advisers for the hundreds of thousands of people starting their life after work, many of whom have modest assets and are reluctant to pay the premium fees for traditional advice. Destination Retirement expands advice to many millions who otherwise would miss out.”
