FCA retirement outcomes review: Half of pots accessed fully withdrawn

FCA exploring further protections for drawdown

Carmen Reichman
clock • 3 min read

More than half of retirement pots accessed under pension freedom rules have been fully withdrawn, the Financial Conduct Authority confirmed in its interim retirement outcomes review.

Published on 12 July, the report said 53% of pension pots accessed by consumers since the rules came into force in April 2015 were fully encashed, however 90% of those were below the value of £30,000. What's more, 94% of consumers making full withdrawals had other sources of retirement income in addition to the state pension, the FCA found. Interestingly however, the regulator also found 52% of fully withdrawn pots were not spent but were moved into other savings or investments. Some of this was due to a lack of public trust in pensions, it said, warning this could result in "consu...

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