Curtis Banks, the SIPP and SSAS provider, has predicted that growth in the retirement advice sector in 2020 will come mainly from pension savers and advisers changing or switching existing drawdown plans. 

It forecasts that advisers will look for more flexible and innovative products in the drawdown market as this sector grows in significance.

The pension income drawdown market received a major boost in 2015 with the introduction of Pension Freedoms.

The company believes that many advisers have stepped away from the defined benefit market due to professional indemnity costs and the risk of future litigation making this business “unappealing.”

Dave Stratton, group sales director at Curtis Banks, said there appeared to be a shift towards the secondary drawdown market as SIPPs becames less of an obvious choice for pension transfers.

He said: “The advice sector is fast changing and where two or three years ago advisers were seeing high levels of clients wishing to move from defined benefit pension schemes into defined contribution products such as SIPPs, this is no longer the case. 

“For 2020, it looks set to be the year of the secondary drawdown market. This is due to the innovative nature of the pension market and firms creating more flexible investment and drawdown solutions.  While there are costs associated with transferring products, in many cases the costs to the client of not transferring are greater.”