Longer lives bring more choices and more opportunities, but also more decisions and more risks. When it comes to thinking about how and when to retire, people tend to be unaware of and unprepared for the decisions they’ll need to make and the potential consequences of making them.

As the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consults on new forms of personalised information and guidance, including Targeted Support, Phoenix Insights has partnered with Community Research to establish a Consumer Advisory Panel. This panel will meet over the course of several months in 2025 to provide detailed insights into consumer views on the notion of Targeted Support as well as the principles they feel should underpin it.

Why is this important?

There is a support need.

• 71% of people accessing a defined contribution pension receive information, advice or guidance from their pension provider, Pension Wise or a financial adviser before doing so
• Only 8% of UK adults received full financial advice.

This leaves a significant gap between people receiving paid for personalized advice and those accessing free guidance, which is largely generic, factual information.

What are the implications?

There is broad consensus that consumers face life-changing, complex decisions without sufficient support and risk making uninformed decisions, the risks of which include;  

• running out of money
• living more frugally than necessary
• compromising benefits eligibility
• paying more tax than necessary
• receiving poor returns on investments.

Why is it important to understand the public view?

We believe it’s important to explore how consumers think and feel about the role Targeted Support could play in supporting their retirement income decision-making, particularly around;

• what could Targeted Support look like
• what would ensure consumer trust in Targeted Support