With the number of enquiries in respect of Defined Benefit (DB) pension transfers increasing, MPA have introduced The Final Salary Portal to educate our clients and help them understand the thought process behind the decision to transfer their DB pension, or not, as the case may be.

The Final Salary Portal gives clients the opportunity to watch a series of short, impartial, jargon free, educational videos, which will help them understand more about the pros and cons of staying in, or transferring out of, their DB pension.

Our clients have access to The Final Salary Portal as part of their current service proposition as we believe it has a very valuable role to play in preparing our clients to get the maximum value out of our meetings and ultimately in helping them make an informed decision.

The Final Salary Portal has been designed to be easy and fun to use and, in total, the series of videos are shorter than one episode of Strictly Come Dancing!  The videos do not relate specifically to our client’s schemes but cover the general features of the two options available to them – to stay in or transfer out.

The video scripts are written by Mark Thewlis, a pensions expert and a Chartered Insurance Institute accredited trainer. Furthermore, the videos are accredited by The Pensions Management Institute*.

After our clients have watched each video the Final Salary Portal will ask them to select ‘Complete’, where they will then be asked to confirm that they watched the entire video and also, most importantly, whether they understood them.   Should clients not understand the video or have any questions they can simply click ‘No’ and there is then a facility where they can note their questions which are subsequently shared directly with their Adviser so that these can be addressed.

Whilst we understand that this does not take away from the fact that DB pension transfer can be complex, we hope it assists the clients at MPA with making an educated and informed decision.

Should you require any further information, please contact Phil McGovern on p.mcgovern@mpafm.co.uk

*The Pensions Management Institute promotes and embeds professional standards, setting the benchmarks for best practice.