Financial Conduct Authority consults on Advice Guidance Boundary Review

The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on how it can take forward a new type of targeted support for consumers with their pensions. The consultation runs until February 13, 2025.

The consultation paper sets out the FCA’s high-level proposals for targeted support in pensions, as part of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, following initial proposals outlined jointly with the Government in an earlier discussion paper. A detailed research paper has also been published.

Targeted support would exist between current guidance-based services and more bespoke advice. It aims to help consumers to make effective, timely and properly informed decisions about their pensions. 

The FCA sets out how it envisages the support will work and the conduct standards it is proposing to ensure better outcomes for consumers. Its proposals include:

• Providing a framework within which firms could use information to make a targeted support suggestion.
• Defining the process that a firm would need to follow to make any suggestions.
• Setting out the steps a firm would need to take to monitor the outcomes of its targeted support. 

The FCA is not consulting on new rules at this point, simply seeking initial feedback on its proposed direction. 

A further publication on December 12, 2024, is the FCA’s discussion paper Pensions: Adapting our requirements for a changing market inviting feedback on any further changes that might be needed to certain aspects of the pensions regulatory framework as part of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review consultation above. The paper discusses the regulatory framework that governs projections, requirements for DC transfers and consolidation, and the rules around self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs). 

The FCA is asking for comments on the discussion paper by February 27, 2025.