Keith Churchouse is on to something with planmypension.co.uk

By Dennis Hall | 12:05:19 | 25 September 2009

It’s remarkable how writing something down really focuses the mind. I’ve been in deep thought over the past few weeks, following a blog I wrote about how the current IFA business model is basically broken and difficult to scale up. What stopped me from my navel-gazing was news that Keith Churchouse is ready to launch a new online service called planmypension.co.uk.

It’s not even up and running yet, but has already attracted negative comments from detractors who believe that an online service for pensions will not work. I disagree. I think Keith is on to something. In fact, he’s been working on a web-based proposition for at least four years. I'm not privy to the level of success he had with the previous online service, but it clearly hasn't dented his enthusiasm.

There are a number of directional changes I can see, the first being a focus on pensions rather than an all-embracing advice service. The second is a shift from an explicit fee to something that looks like commission, which is probably the way that his target consumer would prefer to pay. Clearly, there's consumer appetite for this style of charging when dealing online, and it hasn't held back Hargreaves Lansdowne.

It’s a brave but determined move by Keith. We know that consumers will use web-based services to purchase investments, but whether this will translate into a market for pension advice has yet to be seen. I hope it does work, not just for Keith but for the rest of us too.

Wouldn't it be great if we could deal with the transactional side of our business in a more efficient manner? They said it couldn’t be done with car insurance, household insurance or travel insurance, but these are now routinely bought online, leaving the specialists in each of these fields to develop bespoke services for the higher net worth cases.

Any doubts I have about Keith's model are that it's probably undercapitalised. When reading about the money spent by other online services, it begs the question as to whether a lone IFA will be heard above all the competing chatter. Keith's no mug when it comes to social media and he probably knows how to market his message at very low cost, but will that be enough. I'm not sure.

Hats off to Keith for being a pioneer and a trailblazer: I just hope he doesn't crash and burn.

Dennis Hall is a chartered financial planner at Yellowtail Financial Planning in London