Mr Thomas said: “It is quite amazing what is demanded of the industry in terms of response times and late legislation, going to the wire on products and compliance.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Yuille delivered a keynote speech to delegates that notably referenced the Financial Conduct Authority’s Retirement Outcome Review into competition in the retirement income market.
Mr Yuille said he is an advocate of the review, but expressed concern that its remit is too narrow on things like shopping around for drawdown and pricing, adding the City watchdog should explore other considerations such as trust-based pension schemes and the demand for cash.
He said: “I wouldn’t want them to copy and paste their assumptions about shopping around for an annuity and just apply them to drawdown, because the two are fundamentally different.
“Drawdown decisions can depend on a range of things – guarantees, customer service, investments – and in the context of all of those, products and value for money.
“Annuity decisions are clearly more rate-driven. Drawdown decisions are not a once-in-a-lifetime decision. A lot of people do transfer once they are in drawdown. We would like to see these factors to consider filtered into the review.”
Mr Yuille also outlined several initiatives aimed at bolstering consumer engagement with their pension that the ABI has been actively involved in.
He gave credence to the ABI’s managerial role in the development for a prototype Pension Dashboard. He also referred to the development of a guide, called Making Retirement Choices Clear, which aims to decipher some of the more complex industry jargon such as crystallised and uncrystallised funds.
Mr Yuille also waded into the debate on whether there should be a stipulation for consumers to seek financial advice before selling their annuity in exchange for a lump sum, once the initiative goes live in April next year.
He too conducted a straw poll, asking advisers to indicate by a show of hands whether they would consider offering advice if a requirement to take advice in the secondary annuity market was implemented. The result was split on this topic – although a few more advisers said they would not operate in this space.
He said: “There might be an issue with the availability of advice. There are a number of annuities out there that are very small and there will be an issue around the relative cost of advice for those people. I think we are likely to see a requirement to take advice, but only for the higher income end of the spectrum."
He also gave the thumbs up to FCA plans to reform Pension Wise – the industry-funded free financial guidance service – in preparation for the launch of the secondary annuity market.
