The Financial Services Consumer Panel has called on the FCA to take urgent action to protect consumers who buy their retirement products through 'non-advice' sales.

Sue Lewis, Consumer Panel Chair, has made the call following the FCA's final report on its retirement income market study earlier this week.
Ms Lewis welcomed some of the remedies but believes they fail to go far enough.

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Consumers don't understand the difference in advised and non-advised sales, she said. She wants to see them being alerted to the loss of protection if they go down the non-advised route.
She said: "There has been evidence of a shift towards purchasing annuities via 'non-advice' sales for some time. Coupled with imminent pension reforms, this practice will be extended to more complex products such as drawdown. Non-advised sales often have opaque cost structures and offer greatly reduced consumer protection if things go wrong."
She said: "The increase in non-advised sales appears to be driven by lighter touch regulation and higher profit margins, not consumer demand. Consumers don't understand the difference in advised and non-advised sales, and at the very least must be alerted to the loss of protection if they go the non-advised route.
"The risk of these consumers suffering detriment is real and immediate."
The panel suggested last year that the FCA should embody in its rules and mandatory standards the equivalent of a code of conduct for the non-advice market.
Ms Lewis said: "It now looks as though it will be 2016 before the regulator even thinks about this."
The panel has called on the FCA to adopt rules and mandatory standards which guarantee high professional standards, the transparent disclosure of charges, and a clear explanation of the implications of non-advice for consumer protection.