Financial Liverpool 2020 AGM and CPD event

AGM
Our Chair Julie Calvert, read through the report to members. Financial Liverpool has been able to donate £1,000 to Zoe’s Place and thanked all of those who came to the Christmas Lunch for their kind donations towards this.
After several years at Tilney, Financial Liverpool will now be hosting their monthly talks at another venue. Julie thanked the team at Tilney for their support over the years. From April onwards, talks will be held elsewhere but will remain in the City Centre.
After three years as Chair of the committee, Julie confirmed that she will be stepping down as Chair in January 2021.
Julie reminded everyone that the committee is always looking for new members. We had one request from Rachel Geary of Barnett Waddingham and members voted to make Rachel a general committee member. Andrew Roberts wanted to stand down as a committee member and Julie thanked him for his hard work as Communications officer. Helen Thomas will move into the Communications officer role. All other members are to remain, Members voted and agreed to this motion.

Talk: CP19/25: “Pension transfer advice: contingent charging and other proposed changes”.

Les gave an insightful presentation that discussed the potential impacts on DB transfer advice as a result of CP19/25 and the policy statement, due out in Q1 of 2020.
Les began by explaining the journey that has led to this, beginning with Pension Freedoms and the timeline which will apply once the FCA announce the policy statement.
He then went to discuss some numbers, including the fact that 50% of cases examined were deemed suitable whereas 69% of advice that led to a recommendation to transfer, thus demonstrating the issues and harm that has potentially been caused.
There are six key proposals, including a ban on contingent charging in most instances as well as talking ‘excessive’ ongoing charges and additional CPD hours for Pension Transfer Specialists. Abridged advice will come in to be used instead of ‘triage’ to ease the advice gap. There will also be more emphasis on a client’s workplace pension when considering pension planning.
Empowering customers is also a key proposal and the FCA will propose remedies that are intended to improve consumer engagement with the advice process, and will include an ‘understanding check’.
The paper is due out in this quarter (Q1 2020) and will affect all who are involved in the pension transfer market.