MoneyHelper and Pension Wise
The government-backed MoneyHelper service offers free, impartial guidance about a whole range of money matters including budgeting, money troubles, savings and pensions. Trained experts are available to help by phone and webchat.
MoneyHelper includes Pension Wise, a service for people over 50 that explains your options for taking money out of your pension savings. You can chat to pension experts on the website.
If you’re over 50 you can make an appointment for a guidance call. This can either be a call with a pensions expert, or a self-guided appointment online.
Calls last about an hour.
The self-guided appointment is expected to last about 30 minutes, but you can save it at any time and come back to it later.
- Book a Pension Wise appointment online.
- Book your appointment by phone on 0800 138 3944.
- Or, we can book your Pension Wise appointment for you. Contact us.
Citizens Advice
Citizens Advice is a charity offering confidential help and advice to help people sort out their problems, including money and debt.
Regulated financial advice
The organisations we’ve listed so far offer guidance. They don’t give specific advice, tailored to you, recommending what you should do. You can only get this kind of advice from an adviser who’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You usually have to pay for regulated financial advice and it can seem expensive, but it could be money well spent if it gives you a better retirement.
The MoneyHelper website has a guide to choosing a financial adviser and a directory of advisers who can give regulated financial advice about pensions.
The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has a What we do for the public section, including a directory you can filter to find advisers that specialise in giving regulated financial advice about retirement planning.
The FCA has a register of financial services firms regulated in the UK. You should check any adviser you’re thinking of using appears on this register as authorised to give advice on pensions.