Financial information provider Defaqto has launched a CPD accredited guide on the Pension Freedoms, nearly five years on from their introduction.

The guide ‘Balancing pension freedoms and risk in the modern advice world’, is  sponsored by Canada Life and covers legislative changes over the past five years.

The guide is split into two parts, the first section evaluates the market landscape, summarising legislation and the options available to clients upon retirement. The second section reviews a Canada Life retirement solutions product, explaining how it works.

Defaqto says the guide will help advisers to:

• Understand the retirement landscape and solutions which exist (drawdown and annuity based).
• Understand the key aspects of regulation surrounding a retirement strategy and the more recent changes and updates.
• Understand and appreciate the risks in running a retirement income strategy.
• Understand the different retirement choices and retirement income options and how they meet differing customer needs.

Andrew Duthie, insight consultant (wealth) at Defaqto, said: “The financial advice landscape is constantly evolving and advisers are facing multiple challenges from a regulatory perspective.

“With so much noise in the market, the retirement space can be difficult to navigate. With the pivotal role that financial advisers have, it is key that they take the time to understand new products launching in the retirement space in their entirety.

“This guide aims to help advisers understand how they can best ensure they’ve applied a duty of care to their clients, researching the entire market, as well as considering the benefits of the type of structure applied by Canada Life.”

The guide is available to advisers from the Defaqto website.