Financial Liverpool - Pensions: Consultation Suffocation?

The last few months have witnessed a plethora of Consultations and Calls for Evidence being issued; both by the Regulators (FCA and TPR), as well as by Government departments (including the DWP and HM Treasury).

Clearly, responding to these consultations takes both (unbillable) time and resource to achieve, and as well as the sheer volume of them and the unpredictability of their release, doubts remain as to the actual impact that such responses make to the finalised rules, policies and legislation.

Is the ‘real’ consulting undertaken before the consultation papers are issued? If so, what can pension providers and financial advisers do to ensure that their voices are both heard, and their views taken into account, at the optimum point of policy-making?

Learning outcomes

• To gain an understanding of what the Regulators and Government departments have been consulting about during 2021 to date, and the key themes emerging from these;

• To consider whether the consultation process is ‘fit for purpose’, and the effectiveness that industry responses have on the final outcomes; and

• To evaluate to what extent pension providers and financial advisers can exert their influence and ideas at the outset of policy-making, rather than towards the end of the process.

The target audience will be financial planners, paraplanners, legal professionals, accountants and investment professionals.