Retirement incomes will suffer if Scotland votes in favour of independence, a pensions expert has warned.
Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, believes the costs of new, separate regulation and administration will ultimately fall on ordinary investors and affect pensions.
Mike Morrison, head of platform marketing at AJ Bell, broadly agreed there would be various cost impacts. Scotland's status in the European Union and currency change also raise questions for financial advisers, he said.
Mr McPhail said: "Plans for separate regulation, compensation schemes and a Scottish National Employment Savings Trust would all incur set up costs running into hundreds of millions of pounds; all this at a time when every effort is being made to reduce investment charges."
There would be additional administration costs for every financial institution to create duplicate processes, training programmes and information systems to accommodate the two different national systems, he said.
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He said: "If we end up with separate tax rates or a separate currency it would get even more complicated and costly.
"The cost of all these changes will inevitably fall on ordinary investors and will reduce their investment returns and retirement incomes."
Mr Morrison said: "The two key issues seem to the currency issue and also whether Scotland is in or out of the EU.
"A different currency will bring with it its own problems and cost and if Scotland in not in the EU then we would have all the problems of trading with a non EU state – again if Scotland was in the European Economic Area as opposed to the EU then this might assist.
"Could an adviser buy an annuity with an non-EU provider? If non-EU would Scots providers be subject to the insolvency and policy protection as EU?
"Other issues could be – how easy would it be for an English adviser to advise a Scottish client and vice versa and would there be any process or procedure to be gone through."