Article by Phil
Are you a target for pension scammers?
According to the latest research by LV, 14% of people had received unsolicited contact about their pension from someone who was not known to them. The contact could have been by letter, e mail or telephone. Not all would be scams but many could be. That is one in every seven people being targeted.
This figure rises to one in four for more affluent individuals.
Despite the push by regulators and the government to make people more aware of the risks of scammers, 27% of people still said they felt that they would not be able to spot a scam. With 38% saying they wished they had more information.
We’ve been publishing regular updates and scam warnings on the website, so if anyone reading this is uncertain, please have a look at some of our top tips to avoid scams. Or our news articles.
The research goes on to make the point that people with financial advisors are far more likely to be victims of scams because they have a professional to approach with any concerns they might have.
The research also looked at the way in which advice is delivered and in particular online advice. Whilst Zoom has been widely adopted and accepted as a necessity by clients during the pandemic, face to face advice remains the preferred option.
The research showed the following preferences.
82% “more than happy” to receive advice face to face, 62% over the phone, 57% over a video calls and 53% by instant messaging.
Despite these preferences, HSBC have just announced (21/4/21) the introduction of a “live chat” function in their online My Investment platform. The Bank say that the assistance being provided is “not advice” but is designed to help customers find answers to their questions about the investment process. It seems that it takes customers up to 45 days on average to decide whether to use the online platform and they are clearly trying to reduce that decision time.
Interesting. When you look at these preferences its worth noting where the opportunities for fraud and scams might be most prevalent and being more vigilant when dealing with advice online.
One our mantras has always been to allow customers as much time as they need to come a decision on whether to invest or not. If that means multiple face to face meetings then that’s fine with us. It also means that we leave people alone. One of the things we guarantee is that we will not follow up or send any marketing literature to anyone who comes in for a Free Initial Meeting.
We always wait for the customer decide when the time is right for them to get back in touch.
