RPS chooses drawdown and advice providers
Pardon the Interruption
This article is just an example of the content available to mallowstreet members.
On average over 150 pieces of new content are published from across the industry per month on mallowstreet. Members get access to the latest developments, industry views and a range of in-depth research.
All the content on mallowstreet is accredited for CPD by the PMI and is available to trustees for free.
The Railways Pension Scheme has started offering access to drawdown with an external provider for its defined contribution and AVC members, and has introduced an advice service for all RPS members.
The scheme said that members of the Industry-Wide Defined Contribution section of RPS and those with additional voluntary contributions, such as BRASS, can now access drawdown with Legal & General.
“The RPS does not offer drawdown directly, so we’ve partnered with Legal & General, to offer members access to a new, value-for-money, high-quality, drawdown facility,” the scheme said.
It said that without this in place, members are “exposed to the open market, where many of the products came with costly fees”, and the trustees saw a need for giving members access to a product that is more competitively priced should they wish to use it.
Scheme sees need to offer financial advice for all
The scheme has also decided to give access to advice to all of its members, choosing LV as its official partner to provide input on members’ retirement, financial planning and transfers. LV will be offering a discounted rate to RPS members, the scheme has said.
Since the British Steel scandal, views in the industry about helping members to find advice have been changing. While many boards used to see a higher risk in providing access to advice, fearing legal recourse, there is growing consensus that the risk of doing nothing is greater, and more schemes are negotiating preferential rates with adviser firms.
However, the adviser market has been shrinking, with fewer firms offering the whole spectrum of retirement advice.
