A group of industry campaigners has called on Financial Planners to estimate the cost of relying on hard copy Letters of Authority (LOA).

The Pension Lab, Criterion, Beyond Encryption and Punter Southall have teamed up to launch the #LogYouLOAPain initiative against “antiquated” LOAs.

The campaigners claim that LOAs can lead to Financial Planners falling short of the FCA's new Consumer Duty because service fails to support customers to pursue their financial objectives.

They have called on Financial Planners to log their experience of LOAs at www.thepensionlab.co.uk/logloa

In return they will receive a bespoke report, detailing estimated annual costs incurred by the LOA process.

The group said if enough Financial Planners, Paraplanners and wealth managers log their experience they will be able to supply the industry with an informed view of what LOAs cost each individual firm and the industry as a whole

Scott Phillips, CEO and founder of The Pension Lab, said: “Encouraging everyone to log the volume of their estimated LoA submissions will shed light on the extent of the issue across the UK, enabling substantive prioritisation for its improvement. In return, advisers will receive a bespoke report, detailing what the current process costs them.

“By showing the scale of the LoA volumes, and the cost impact on individual firms and the entire sector, we can make a big step forward to forming a cross-industry coalition to count towards solutions that work.”