A Welsh wealth management firm is on a mission to make key pension advice more accessible to people who see it as unaffordable.
A website has been launched by Cardiff-based Penguin Wealth with the aim of providing as much high quality free content as possible, including a free pension review or retirement options report.
The service is offered under the Get Financial Advice brand, a trading name of Penguin, which is directly regulated by the FCA.
Customers will get a breakdown of all their available options in a written report, showing the advantages and disadvantages of each possible scheme.
The report will examine how a customer's pensions are performing to see if these can be improved upon and a number of recommendations will then be made, tailored to their personal circumstances.
The advice, offered via the website and over the phone, is free.
{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}
But if the customer chooses to accept the recommendations GFA will charge a fee to carry these out.
Craig Palfrey, Certified Financial Planner, said: "We hope that www.increaseyourpension.co.uk will become the go-to resource for those seeking pension information and help and who don't have the time to go to an adviser, are afraid to do so, or think they can't afford it."
The scheme was backed by an £85,000 Welsh Assembly grant.
Guides, articles, videos and blogs can be found on the site.
Mr Palfrey said: "We ultimately wanted to help more people get advice – ideally good advice – and make it affordable.
The new website is dedicated to providing help to 5.5 million people who, following the RDR, no longer have access to advice and those looking at their retirement planning, he added.
Originally, the firm's vision was to be the first to market with a fully independent advice service via the phone/internet but several other similar sites have emerged recently.
Mr Palfrey said: "We are trying to reduce the amount of people who don't get advice and go to these non-advised services, especially when it comes to retirement planning as too many people are not fully aware of all the options available to them."
He believes it is "absolutely vital" that people with less money have access to such advice, saying: "Many people won't be receiving advice and they will suffer for it when they come to retire."
The £85k grant, which supported the scheme, came after the company submitted a plan for the future showing how it will boost the Welsh Economy. It is a match funded grant and there are criteria and targets that have to be met before funding is released.