The phone lines are hotting up for IFAs as retirement questions jump to the fore.
After a quiet first day of the new tax year, Hargreaves Lansdown was set for a tenfold increase in activity.
Head of Pensions Research at HL Tom McPhail said: “It looks as if yesterday’s quiet start was simply down to the sunny bank holiday.
Today it’s back to business and investors are clearly keen to enjoy the benefits of the new pension freedoms. We had projected that across the pension system as a whole, up to 400,000 investors would take advantage of the new freedoms in the opening months of this tax year and based on today’s experience, this still looks like a reasonable expectation.”
HL reported that 80% of the phone calls received by their pensions helpline had been about taking retirement benefits. The rest have mainly been about making a new contribution using this year’s allowance.
What’s more, of the 80% retirement benefit calls, 70% have been about flexible access drawdown, 17% have been on annuities and 13% on using Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum.
