Should You Get Financial Advice for Your Pension? What UK Savers Need to Know
Pension advice can be valuable but costly and hard to access. Here is what UK consumers need to know about fees, the advice gap, and when professional guidance is worth it.
Direct answer
Getting financial advice for your pension is not legally required in most cases, but it can help you make complex decisions about how to access your savings. Advice typically costs between 1% and 3% upfront plus 0.5%–1% per year, which can be a significant barrier. If you want to transfer a defined benefit pension worth £30,000 or more, you are legally required to take regulated advice first.
Should You Get Financial Advice for Your Pension? What UK Savers Need to Know
Deciding how and when to access your pension is one of the most consequential financial choices you will make. Yet most people approach it without a clear plan — and finding the right support is harder and more expensive than many expect. Here is a plain-English breakdown of what financial advice for your pension actually involves, what it costs, and where the system falls short for ordinary savers.
What's Happening
Pensions and retirement planning are the single biggest reason people in the UK seek financial advice. According to the FCA's 2025 Financial Advice survey, 69% of all advice firm clients were looking for help with pensions and retirement — more than any other financial topic.
At the same time, three out of four people aged 45 or over with a defined contribution (DC) pension have no clear plan for how to access their savings, according to separate FCA research. A defined contribution pension is one where your retirement income depends on how much has been paid in and how the investments have performed — as opposed to a defined benefit pension, which pays a guaranteed income for life. The shift away from defined benefit schemes over recent decades means millions of UK workers now face complex decisions about annuities, drawdown, lump sums, and tax allowances — often without much guidance.
Why It Matters
The stakes are high. Get the timing or structure of your pension withdrawals wrong and you could face a larger tax bill, miss out on better annuity rates, or run down your savings faster than planned.
A regulated financial adviser can help by making personalised recommendations — including how to draw down your pension, which products to use, and how to make the most of tax allowances. Which? member Guy Simpson, who took voluntary redundancy shortly before planned retirement, used an adviser after finding himself managing a defined contribution pension, a defined benefit pension, and compensation from a mis-sold pension simultaneously. He was charged 1.5% of the funds transferred upfront and an ongoing annual fee of 0.75%. He says the advice paid off: his adviser recommended waiting on an annuity until rates improved, a decision Guy says he would not have made alone.
However, advice is not always worth the ongoing cost. Another Which? member found that while their initial advice was sound, investment returns did not justify the continuing fees. They moved their SIPP and ISA to a bank-managed platform costing roughly a third of what they had been paying — and say performance has since been better.
The lesson: it is worth reviewing whether ongoing advice still makes financial sense, not just at the start.
Who Is Affected
Anyone with a defined contribution pension approaching retirement is likely to benefit from at least understanding their options — whether or not they ultimately pay for advice.
If you want to transfer a defined benefit pension with a transfer value of £30,000 or more, you are legally required to take regulated financial advice before doing so. In most cases, experts say you are better off leaving defined benefit pensions where they are, but the legal requirement exists to protect savers from making irreversible decisions without proper guidance.
Smaller savers face a particular problem. The proportion of advisers willing to work with clients who have less than £50,000 in their pension has fallen sharply — from 52% in 2019 to just 25% in 2025, according to the Schroders 2025 UK Financial Adviser Survey. The Lang Cat's 2025 Advice Gap report found that the mode average minimum asset requirement among advisers is £100,000. This is partly a consequence of the 2012 Retail Distribution Review, which reduced commission-based income for advisers and made percentage-fee models more dominant — making smaller pots less commercially attractive to advise on.
Which? member Tim Hall found it difficult to get one-off advice on a specific pension rule relating to a scheme set up in the late 1980s. Around nine in ten adviser clients receive ongoing services rather than one-off guidance, according to the FCA. Tim eventually worked directly with his pension provider to understand his options, a process he described as taking months and requiring him to become an expert in his own pension.
What to Do Next
Understand what you need before approaching an adviser. Are you looking for a one-off answer to a specific question, or ongoing management of your retirement income? Knowing this upfront will help you find the right type of support and avoid paying for services you do not need.
Get at least three quotes. Advisers are not required to publish fees on their websites — when Which? checked 20 top advice firms in 2022, 15 did not mention charges at all. Many offer a free initial consultation. Use this to get a clear written quote before committing.
Understand the typical cost. Initial fees usually run between 1% and 3% of the assets being advised on, with ongoing annual fees of 0.5%–1%. On a £100,000 pension pot, expect to pay £1,000–£3,000 upfront and £500–£1,000 per year. Six in ten firms charge between 0.5% and 0.75% annually for ongoing advice, according to the Schroders 2025 Financial Advice Survey.
Use free guidance first. The government-backed Pension Wise service (part of MoneyHelper) offers free, impartial guidance for people aged 50 or over with a defined contribution pension. Your pension provider may also offer information and tools. Free guidance is not the same as regulated advice — it cannot make personalised recommendations — but it can help you understand your options before spending money on a paid adviser.
Review ongoing advice regularly. If you already pay for ongoing advice, check periodically whether the returns and service justify the fees. Switching to a lower-cost platform or reducing the scope of advice may be appropriate as your situation stabilises.
Watch for regulatory changes. The FCA is currently consulting on simplifying rules around pensions and retirement advice. The aim is to make it easier for firms to offer one-off or simplified advice for specific decisions, rather than requiring a full holistic service. This could improve access for people like Tim who want targeted help without committing to ongoing management.
Sources
Key takeaways
- 69% of financial advice firm clients sought help with pensions and retirement, making it the most common reason people seek advice, according to the FCA's 2025 Financial Advice survey.
- Three in four people aged 45 or over with a defined contribution pension have no clear plan for how to access their savings, according to FCA research.
- Typical adviser fees are 1%–3% upfront and 0.5%–1% per year; on a £100,000 pot that is £1,000–£3,000 initially and up to £1,000 annually.
- You are legally required to take regulated advice before transferring a defined benefit pension worth £30,000 or more.
- The proportion of advisers willing to work with pots under £50,000 has fallen from 52% in 2019 to 25% in 2025, widening the advice gap for smaller savers.
Frequently asked questions
Is financial advice for pensions compulsory?
No, in most cases it is not. However, if you want to transfer a defined benefit pension with a transfer value of £30,000 or more, you are legally required to take regulated financial advice before doing so.
How much does pension financial advice typically cost?
Most advisers charge an initial fee of 1%–3% of the assets they advise on, plus an ongoing annual fee of 0.5%–1%. On a £100,000 pension pot, that means roughly £1,000–£3,000 upfront and £500–£1,000 per year.
What if my pension pot is under £50,000?
It can be difficult to find an adviser willing to take you on. Research from The Lang Cat (2025) found that only 25% of advisers will work with clients who have less than £50,000, down from 52% in 2019.
Can I get one-off pension advice rather than ongoing advice?
It is possible but hard to find. Around nine in ten adviser clients receive ongoing advice, according to the FCA's 2025 Financial Adviser Survey. The FCA is currently consulting on simplifying rules to make one-off advice easier to access.