Darlington Building Society, the country’s 21st largest building society with assets in excess of £530m, has signed an agreement with Wren Sterling, a national independent financial planning business, to provide its members and customers with unbiased and objective financial advice.
The advice being offered includes advice on pensions which is timely in light of the Governments recent changes around Pensions Freedom.
It was recently announced that since April of this year when Pensions Freedom launched:
- 60,000 people have taken advantage of the Pensions Freedom legislation to access their pensions,
- Over £1bn has been withdrawn from pension schemes since April,
- The new rules allow people over the age of 55 to withdraw money from their pensions pot, subject to income tax.
The new service was launched on 1 July and Jayne Tomlinson, Branch Manager of the Darlington Building Society branch at 20 West Auckland Road has already noticed a steady stream of members and customers looking particularly for advice on pensions, post-retirement advice but also on investments such as Stocks and Shares ISAs and funeral and estate planning.
Jayne said, “In the first few weeks of offering this excellent new independent advice service, Craig Annan, the Wren Sterling adviser has been able to provide valuable investment and pensions advice to a number of our customers”.
She added, “Members and customers of the Society can book an initial consultation with Craig for no charge, just by calling into the branch. Even if you are not an existing Darlington Building Society customer, the service is still available so please call in. You are assured of a warm welcome”.
Craig said, “I have seen a surge in demand recently from clients looking for advice on pensions in particular which is hardly surprising when considering the new Pensions Freedom legislation”.
He continued, “Making the Wren Sterling independent advice service available in Cockerton is I believe, a huge benefit to the area and its people and I look forward to meeting more of them at the Darlington Building Society branch over the next few months”.