In a report and interview by industry newspaper Financial Adviser, with Norwich Union Chief Exec, Gary Withers, Mr Withers has said that consumers should be more responsible for their choice of financial products, as people have to do in other industries.
In the report he cited things like medicines, where people can freely buy things over the counter but they are responsible for reading the label.
Our view
To a certain extent, we would tend to agree. For too long , consumers have been given the benefit of the doubt on any mis-sold pension, endowment or whatever.
We believe that a solution would be to grade products with a simple risk/advice rating. E.g. term assurance should be low risk whereas pension transfer plans should be rated 5. I.e. risk to capital/risk of loss etc. Giving simple "health warnings" would avoid make it clearer for people on the degree of complexity of their chosen plan etc.
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