More than half of financial advisers reckon the FCA’s thematic review of retirement income advice should recommend a different investment approach for clients in decumulation compared to those in accumulation.

The FCA launched its thematic review in January with the aim of publish its findings in Q4 2023.

The regulator said the review was designed to understand more about how financial advisers provide retirement income advice and to assess the quality of outcomes consumers are getting.

According to research from Copia Capital Management, 52% of advisers believe the review should recommend that a different investment approach is required for clients in decumulation compared to those in accumulation.

However just over two-fifths - 42% - believe the decision is not clear-cut, while only 5% don’t think a different approach should be recommended.

The Copia survey was conducted among advisers who recently took part in a webinar.

Tony Hicks, head of sales at Copia said: “I think it’s unlikely that the FCA’s thematic review will say anything other than your decumulation strategy should be purpose-built. We firmly believe that the risks in accumulation and decumulation are different.”

He said that accumulation is pretty straightforward: “we’re trying to provide a real return and beat inflation, within the client’s risk appetite.”

In decumulation though, he said “we need to consider longevity and sequencing risk and clients want certainty of outcome.”

Mr Hicks said: “Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen the traditional approach of the 60/40 bond/equity portfolio fundamentally fail in decumulation due to the correlation of bonds and equities in falling markets.

“People have gone into retirement and seen their portfolio fall by perhaps 20%, which is really concerning as it will significantly alter their lifestyle in retirement.”

The survey of 84 advisers formed part of a webinar on the new Copia Select Retirement Income Plus (RI+) portfolios, with Tony Hicks and Kevin Blackwell, Copia portfolio manager, with Yannis Katsis, business development director, and Stuart Slegg, SLI proposition manager from Just Group.