More than one in four pension savers (28%) nearing retirement say they have seen a financial adviser or wealth manager in the past or do so currently, according to new research.

There was a welcome pledge from the FCA this week that it would strive to speed up enforcement action in future, despite the challenges. This is promising but I suspect it will be harder to achieve than they expect.

While we wait for the Budget and its threatened changes to pensions taxation with bated breath, it’s worth remembering that the public is beginning to accept that retirement, while not yet extinct as a notion, is not quite what it was.

I’m prompted to ask the question posed in the headline after reading several recent surveys suggesting that, given a choice, most people do their very best to avoid taking financial advice.

A major new consumer financial survey has revealed that 24.6m people in the UK have never taken financial advice or guidance with 11m saying ‘perceived barriers’ deter them from seeking advice.