A video virtual assistant has been designed to provide financial guidance and cut out the need to see a professional adviser.

The new robo service, “designed to be as good as” a face-to-face meeting, launched today.

Employee benefits consultancy Portus has created the ‘guidance solution’ for employees, saying it cuts the need for employers and staff to pay for advice.

The initiative is an expansion of its moneygym service, which aims to increase employee engagement with retirement and wider Financial Planning.

Portus estimated that it will enable 80% of employees to make retirement planning decisions.

Portus Consulting commercial director Steve Watson said: “Independent financial advice is valuable for some people, but the majority of employees cannot afford it.

“Financial guidance does not have to be complicated, and it should not involve throwing every aspect of retirement planning at users and leaving it up to them to make complex decisions.

“The aims of the Virtual Assistant and moneygym are to increase engagement with pensions and other investments, and to enable employees to see all their assets in one place and plan their retirement with everything in view.”

Portus stated: “The video guidance service – which is accessible at work and at home around the clock – is designed to be as good as a one-to-one meeting for the majority of users.

“Moneygym already enables users to track retirement savings including private and State pensions as well as other investments including property. The Virtual Assistant provides guidance on all aspects of retirement planning including tax and regulation, enhancing the service on the award-winning portal.”

“moneygym users enter confidential details of their finances including pension savings, other investments and target retirement dates; their information is secure and not accessible by their employer. They can then see their predicted long term income, and model changes to alter the outcome."

Moneygym has been purchased by employers for more than 6,000 employees, Portus reported.

The system sends alerts to users when they are close to exceeding annual pension contribution allowances, the firm said, with the aim to help them to avoid potential tax charges.

According to Portus, employees can use the portal to outline scenarios on increasing pension contributions, for instance, and the impact on how they decide to take retirement income. They can retain access to the service if they leave their job.

The company said that employees can enter and update monthly expenses as well as property ownership or rental costs, debts or savings, and health data including exercise, smoking and alcohol intake. Life expectancy is calculated using the death data run against mortality tables.