The Money Advice Service wants to link up with Financial Planners and develop a closer working relationship, chief executive Caroline Rookes says, as she stressed their goals are more aligned than they might think.

Ms Rookes told Financial Planning Today that, ultimately, advice sector professionals had the same interest in making more people aware of the importance of managing their money effectively.

She said: “We are working with all constituents, financial advisers and anybody to try to get messages about the need for planning the need to manage finances and looking ahead.

“We would be more than happy to be working with the Financial Planning community on that sort of thing.

“We are really keen to work with the advice and planner community and help them to understand what we do because I don’t think they all necessarily do.

“They are paying for us so it is important they do understand what we’re doing and they appreciate that we are concerned about how we spend our resources.”

She said MAS is looking to develop partnerships and see if there are circumstances where they can “hand people off” to Financial Planners.

Ms Rookes said: “Maybe Financial Planners are in that category where we need to stop and think, ‘who are the people we’re engaging with that might be the sort of people who should be going to see Financial Planners?’ And how do we get them to make that leap in the way we have done with the retirement directory?”

She said that she has had regular discussions with PFS chief Keith Richards and APFA, which both helped to create the MAS Retirement directory.

Former IFP chief executive Steve Gazzard was also interested in MAS’ work, she said.

Research suggests key life events are the things that hook people into thinking about personal finances seriously, Ms Rookes said, such as getting married, having a baby, or buying a house.

She said: “The more people that understand at the start of their life journey they need to do it (plan their finances), the more likely they are to use Financial Planners.”

MAS is set to be dissolved by the end of 2018 in its current form, but a new organisation will emerge from combining it with TPAS and Pension Wise. The remit of the new body is being considered and debated but the goals are likely to be broadly the same.

In the meantime, MAS wants to work with planners, advisers and anyone who “can help generate a more financially resilient society”, Ms Rookes said.

She said: “At the end of the day we are all seeking the same thing, to get people to think about and engage with their money and people don’t like doing that. They like spending it but they don’t like thinking about it as it’s boring. How do you crack that?”