Analysis carried out by the company has revealed that pension fund growth has been a slow 4.9 per cent on average over 2020, compared with the hearty 14.4 per cent growth seen over 2019.
While this is still heartening, despite the notably volatile stock markets seen in the first quarter of 2020, Ms Springall said Covid-19 has "undoubtedly" had a "devastating impact on consumers' everyday finances, plausibly affecting their future retirement plans".
Indeed, it may be consumers change their minds about how they enter the decumulation phase: should they opt for an annuity or go into drawdown? Or should they remain invested, if they can, and seek to keep their funds in the market for as long as possible to recoup gains?
Ms Springall explains the conundrum facing people at retirement: "Those consumers who are approaching retirement may find they have a shortfall due to market turmoil and that their cash savings are earning little interest, with rates falling to all-time lows.
“Retirees considering an annuity would be disappointed to see another fall in the average annual income for the third year in a row, so it would be understandable for them to favour pension drawdown instead."
Also, as she points out, since pension freedoms were introduced in 2015, annuity income has fallen for five out of the six years. Growth has not been seen across the market for a full year since 2017, which was just 1 per cent.
Ms Springall adds: "Clearly it would be wise for consumers to seek independent financial advice when it comes to their retirement plans and keep up with regular reviews of their investments and options."
Market woes
For some clients, the steep, sharp shock to global stock markets last February and March caused enough of a concern for them to delay making plans to retire then and go into drawdown while the markets were down.
Thankfully, the subsequent rebounds put most clients' minds at ease, but even despite strong rallies in global markets across 2020, the ongoing concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic, the high death toll in the UK and worries about other variants causing protracted lockdowns has caused some people to panic with their pension money.
Fortunately, the plummeting markets were only a concern for one of Mr Morris' clients. He explains: "Thankfully, after persuading him on more than one occasion to stay the course, he remained invested long enough to regain his losses.
"Other than that, it was a great opportunity for clients to invest and the savvier clients to increase their portfolio risk.
"To paraphrase Buffett: 'be greedy when others are fearful'. This idea really paid off thanks to the quickest recovery from a bear market on record."
