Retirement planning leads: clients deciding how to take an income
Savers at or near retirement with £250k–£3m in defined-contribution pensions, weighing drawdown, an annuity or both. Booked into your diary with a full brief. £500 per qualified show.
On this page
You buy a booked conversation with someone deciding how to turn pensions into income, in both diaries.
- You buy a contact detail
- You ring them to introduce yourself
- You chase for a date and time
- You pay whether they answer or not
- The same enquiry often goes to several firms
- You buy a booked appointment
- They picked the time, asked for one firm only, and are told your firm's name and FRN when you claim
- Pensions of £250k+ (self-declared), reconfirmed on the call
- No-show? It's credited back to your balance
- One firm per appointment, never resold
- Sees one of our adverts on Facebook, Instagram or Google. Every consumer advert is approved by an FCA-authorised firm under section 21 of FSMA before it runs.
- Answers the qualifier: DC pension value (under £250k can't book), pension types, pots, age, retirement stage and the help they want.
- Tells us where they are with retirement (within 2 years, 2 to 5 years, or already retired) and whether they've already taken tax-free cash or an income.
- Hears the ground rules: advice is paid for, and your firm pays us for the introduction. People who only want free guidance are pointed to MoneyHelper.
- Picks a time, confirms their mobile and asks us to book them with one FCA-authorised independent firm. Their answers go to that one firm only.
- Gets your firm name and FRN as soon as you claim the booking, before the call, plus email and text reminders. We don't make unsolicited pension marketing calls.
- Meets you by video, phone or face to face. If they don't turn up, the credit goes back to your balance.
What is a retirement planning appointment?
A retirement planning appointment is a first meeting with a UK saver who is within five years of retiring, or already retired, and wants help turning pensions into an income. On the qualifier they've picked one or more of: planning a retirement income, taking tax-free cash, drawdown versus annuity, or retiring early. Their defined-contribution pensions add up to £250k or more.
This is the core of UK advice work. In the FCA's survey of advice firms for 2025, firms estimated that accessing pensions at retirement was the primary objective for 19% of their retail clients, and 27% at small firms. Saving for retirement accounted for another 37%.
What is on the brief before a retirement meeting?
For income clients, the fields that shape the first conversation are these:
- Retirement stage: within 2 years, 2 to 5 years, recently retired or retired 2+ years
- Already accessed? Not yet, tax-free cash only, flexible income (drawdown) or an annuity
- Pension types, including any final salary pension or annuity already paying
- Pension value band and approximate total, if the client knows it
- Help wanted: income plan, tax-free cash, drawdown vs annuity, early retirement
- Age, employment status, home ownership and other investable assets band
- Partner joining? and whether they already have an adviser
- Timescale, advice fees acknowledged, meeting type and postcode district
We stop at facts and intent. There's no attitude-to-risk question and no view on which income route suits them. This is how a retirement income appointment might look:
Illustrative appointment card. Every field is one the qualifier collects; the client and figures are examples, not an actual client.
Who books a drawdown appointment?
Drawdown is now the most common route for pots that aren't cashed in whole. The FCA's retirement income data for 2025/26, published on 24 September 2026, recorded 1,047,008 pension plans accessed for the first time. Of those, 401,137 (about 38%) went into drawdown, and about 44% of those drawdown entries were made with regulated advice. These are plans, not people, and one person can hold several.
The clients who reach you have asked for the conversation, so you start from their question. Typical agendas: a sustainable withdrawal level, which pots to draw first, how drawdown sits alongside a partner's income, and what happens to the fund on death. If you model sustainable withdrawals for these clients, see our round-up of cashflow modelling software for UK advisers.
That last point has changed. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits are brought into scope of inheritance tax, which alters how many families think about leaving a pension untouched. Clients whose main worry is passing money on are covered on the inheritance tax planning leads page.
Why are annuity conversations growing at larger pots?
The ABI reported a record £7.4bn of individual annuity premiums in 2025, up 4% on 2024, even though the number of annuities sold fell 2% to 87,600. The growth came from bigger purchases: sales above £250,000 rose 31%, and the average annuity purchase was £84,000.
So the annuity question is turning up more often in larger cases. It's rarely annuity or drawdown in isolation: a client with £600k might want secure income for essentials and drawdown for the rest. We don't quote rates or suggest a route. The recommendation, and any live quotes, are yours.
What does the brief tell you about tax-free cash and the MPAA?
Two answers on the brief save time in the first ten minutes. The first is whether the client has already taken anything. For 2026/27 the lump sum allowance is £268,275, and the lump sum and death benefit allowance is £1,073,100, unless a protection applies. A client who has taken tax-free cash has used part of that allowance.
The second is whether they've started a flexible income. Taking a first drawdown income payment or an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum triggers the money purchase annual allowance, which cuts future defined-contribution contributions to £10,000 a year. Taking only tax-free cash doesn't normally trigger it. For a client still working, or a company director planning employer contributions, that matters before anything else is discussed.
Age is on the brief too. The normal minimum pension age rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028, with protected pension ages for some members.
Does the rising State Pension age matter to these clients?
For some, yes. The State Pension age is rising from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028. People born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 reach it at 66 plus between one and eleven months, depending on birth date. Anyone born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 reaches it at 67.
A client retiring at 63 may need their private pensions to bridge three or four years before the State Pension starts. The brief gives you age and retirement stage. You'll want to confirm the exact State Pension date and forecast in the meeting.
Savers who only want guidance, not advice, may use targeted support from their pension provider instead; here's what targeted support means for your pipeline. And if a client's retirement plan turns on releasing equity from their home, that's a different appointment, with a specialist equity release adviser. We don't book equity release.
Should you pay per retirement enquiry or per show?
Many retirement clients are still working until they stop, and hard to reach by phone. Paying per enquiry leaves you carrying the cost of every missed call:
| Typical pay-per-enquiry source | InvestmentsBooked | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay for | An enquiry: a form fill or call-back request | A qualified appointment that happened |
| If they never answer | Usually your loss once contact details check out | You don't reach a meeting, so you don't pay |
| If they don't turn up | Usually your loss | Credit back to your balance |
| Pot or wealth level | Self-declared, usually not refundable if lower | Self-declared £250k+ in DC pensions, reconfirmed on the call. Under £250k, or under a higher minimum you set: credited |
| Who books the meeting | You chase them for a time | They pick a slot in your diary |
| Contract | Often a subscription or monthly minimum | No subscription, retainer or minimum term. Minimum purchase 10 appointments (£5,000) |
Enquiries can work if someone calls each one within minutes and keeps trying. If not, a booked appointment moves the chasing to us. The guide to buying IFA leads sets out what each source costs.
What does a retirement planning client cost at £500 a show?
Appointment spend per new client is the price per show divided by the share of shows that become clients:
Illustrative: appointment spend per new client at £500 per qualified show. Your results depend on your fees, speed and proposition. We don't publish an InvestmentsBooked conversion rate.
For context, NextWealth's 2026 average ongoing charge was 0.83%, which is about £5,000 a year on a £610,000 pension before costs. Treat that as a mechanical illustration, not a fee you'll earn. Run your own numbers in the pricing calculator.
How do pricing and credits work?
Each qualified show uses one credit. The minimum purchase is 10 appointments (£5,000), credits are valid for 6 months, and the price has no VAT added. No-shows, cancellations not rebooked within 7 days, invalid contact details and upheld disqualifications come back to your balance as credits. No subscription, no retainer and no minimum term.
How are retirement planning appointments qualified?
Every retirement appointment clears the same gates: UK resident, £250k+ in DC pensions (self-declared), fees acknowledged, a confirmed mobile and a request to be booked with one FCA-authorised independent firm. The retirement stage question is the extra signal here. The rest of the process is the same for every appointment we book. Lead quality covers where prospects come from, how every advert is approved and what the consumer agrees to. How it works walks through booking, the brief and reminders. Pricing has the full show test and credit rules. For clients earlier on, with several pots to sort out first, see pension leads for consolidation and review. If you're thinking about how many of these meetings your team can absorb, how many clients a financial adviser needs works through capacity.
Sources and checks. Client objectives: FCA, Understanding the financial advice market (2025 survey, published 23 April 2026; firm estimates). Drawdown entries: FCA, Retirement income market data 2025/26 (published 24 September 2026; percentages calculated from the FCA's underlying tables 1 and 11; counts are plans, not people). Annuities: ABI, Larger pension pots drive record-breaking year for individual annuity premiums (12 February 2026). Allowances: HMRC, pension schemes rates and allowances; MPAA triggers: MoneyHelper. State Pension age: DWP, State Pension age timetable. Ongoing charge: NextWealth fee benchmarking 2026. Figures checked 27 September 2026. InvestmentsBooked is not authorised by the FCA and does not give financial advice.