If you’ve got a pension pot, you’re in the cross hairs of a cyber scammer. And a worrying 29% of us would fall prey, according to new research. By Tony Watts OBE

New research has highlighted the difficulty that many people have in spotting pension scams.

When the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) provided more than 2,000 people with a selection of scenarios that might be pension scams, a worrying proportion (29% – equating to 14.8m UK adults) missed even the most obvious ones.

The research builds on the PLSA’s call for an authorisation regime for pension schemes receiving transfers to help stop fraudsters in their tracks.

It also reinforces the need for immediate action to halt cold calling. James Walsh, Policy Lead for Engagement, EU and Regulation at the PLSA, said: “As an industry, we need to step up to this challenge and the Government’s recent commitment to tabling an amendment to the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill to introduce a ban on pension cold-calling is a step in the right direction.

“However, pension scams come in all shapes and sizes as scammers become increasingly sophisticated. Whilst the Government’s ban on cold calling is welcome it is only part of the solution.

Four fifths of those surveyed by the PLSA (79%) agreed there should be stricter rules and checks to ensure that pension pots are secured.

One in six (17%) people with a pension say they have been contacted by a company other than their pension provider and one in nine say they been contacted multiple times.

A disturbing number of these calls end with the scammer persuading the person to part with their money. A separate report in The Times shows that savers are being tricked out of £500,000 every day – a total of £200 million to date – since the introduction of pension freedoms in the UK.

In some cases, the individual amounts lost exceeded £250,000.

“Sadly, this is a problem that won’t just go away,” Darren Philp, a policy director at the People’s Pension was reported as saying. “Stronger safeguards to help protect people from scammers are crucial, and the suggestion of an authorised list for pension transfers would be a major step forward in stopping the scammers in their tracks.”

There is a simple and safe way to get a firm grip on all your choices: the Premium version of the RetireEasy LifePlan has a simple to use “scenario function”.

First, key in all your “known” parameters – your future income, assets and outgoings together with your desired income during each year of your retirement and save this as your “master template”.

You can then try out and save as many different scenarios as you wish – projecting, for instance, when and how much you might inherit in the future and seeing how this will impact your finances, and how much you could afford to pass down to younger members of the family.

Equally, if you are looking to pass on wealth in the future, you can see what effect gifting members of your family during your lifetime will have on your finances. This can also play a key role in managing future inheritance tax liabilities while ensuring you can live comfortably.

With the RetireEasy LifePlan Classic, you can safely model all of these conflicting demands. And with LifePlan Premium, you can easily save and compare various sets of interest rates and inflation assumptions to see at a glance what they mean to your potential lifestyle – not just this and next year, but every year into the future.

If you want to see how, just click here…