The company said the tax optimisation toolkit was designed to support multi–wrapper retirement income planning, and to help advisers deal with the high demand for retirement advice, especially when it came to making drawdown choices.
“This initiative – part of the Accelerate Programme – supports the implementation of a formal tax advice policy framework, enabling advisers to provide tax–efficient retirement planning in a consistent and scalable manner,” it said in a statement.
The toolkit includes a withdrawal optimiser tool designed to support ongoing client reviews and help advisers place a monetary value on their tax planning recommendations.
It would enable advisers to demonstrate tax savings to clients under different scenarios with a wide range of choices as to how and when to access all tax wrappers to generate an income.
Tax planning
“The tax optimisation toolkit offers a method for developing a robust tax planning policy, with a ‘How to’ guide and template firms can use to structure that policy and share with clients,” said David Tiller, Standard Life’s head of adviser propositions and strategy.
“The withdrawal optimisation tool enables the rapid and efficient implementation of that policy through the modelling of different withdrawal scenarios. The tool then produces a client report illustrating the chosen strategy,” he added.
Created by the tax experts in Standard Life’s Technical Consulting team, the optimiser will be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure consistency with the latest legislation.
Tracey Underwood, managing director of DB Wood Wealth & Risk Management, said: “The new tax planning tool will create real business efficiencies for us, allowing us to spend more time in front of our clients while also assisting us in providing detailed, accurate planning outcomes.”
