Access to paid for financial advice
If you’re a Deferred Member aged 55 or over and are interested in starting to take your benefits from the Plan, you will have access to paid for financial advice provided by a firm of Financial Advisers called Origen Financial Services.
Who are Origen?
Origen are an FCA regulated firm of Financial Advisers, providing a range of services including financial, investment and pensions advice. For more information on Origen and the services they offer, you can visit their website: https://www.origenfs.co.uk/
You can also view the following video:
Your Adviser at Origen will provide you with impartial advice on your options and, based on your circumstances, will advise the appropriate option for you. The advice provided by Origen will be paid for by the Trustee once, so you should make sure that you take this advice at the right time for you. If you require any further advice from Origen, this will need to be paid for by yourself. You can of course use another Financial Adviser of your choice, but this will not be paid for by the Trustee.
You can search for an FCA regulated Adviser by visiting the FCA register: https://register.fca.org.uk/s/
Aged 55 or over and ready to take your benefits?
If you’re a Deferred Member aged 55 or over and are ready to explore taking your benefits from the Plan, you’ll need to contact Equiniti, the Plan Administrators for an up-to-date retirement and transfer quote.
We strongly recommend that you engage with Origen as early as you can, as a guide you should ideally have at least 10 weeks of your transfer value guarantee period remaining when you engage with Origen for the first time. This is to ensure that if you are interested in transferring your benefits to another provider you can do so within the three-month guarantee period provided in the retirement pack sent to you by Equiniti.
If you have less than 10 weeks of your guarantee period left we recommend that you contact Origen to agree appropriate next steps. You should also note that Origen will only process a transfer of your benefits if this is in line with their advice.
To use the service, you’ll need to contact Origen using the following details:
Once you have made contact with Origen, they’ll arrange an appointment for you with an Adviser and send you a link to a financial questionnaire which should complete before your initial appointment. You’ll then be offered a second appointment if you need one – typically members will have two advice appointments. Following your advice session(s) you’ll then be sent an advice recommendation report and will be asked to provide any further details if needed. Finally you’ll be invited to a further appointment with your adviser who will present your final recommendation.
The individual adviser from Origen assigned to your retirement case will remain with you throughout the process to provide you with consistency of service. Remember, you can contact the Origen helpline at any point with any questions you might have during the process.
Below is a diagram showing you the advice process with Origen.
