How to find a financial adviser for a defined benefit pension
Defined benefit pensions promise an income rather than simply giving you an investment pot. Advice involving a transfer therefore needs specialist care and permissions.
Retirement planning and transfer advice are different
Planning around when to take a defined benefit pension is different from advice about transferring safeguarded benefits into a defined contribution arrangement. Transfer advice is a specialist regulated area.
Check the firm has the relevant permission
The FCA describes defined benefit transfer advice as complex and subject to specialist requirements. Check the firm's regulatory record and ask whether it currently provides the specific service you need.
A transfer should not be treated as the default
The FCA and The Pensions Regulator state that for most consumers it is not in their best interests to transfer out of a defined benefit pension. The guaranteed income and other benefits being surrendered are valuable.
Compare actual transfer experience
If transfer advice is genuinely required, ask how much of the adviser's work involves defined benefit cases, what the process costs and how they explain the benefits being given up.