Why do I need a financial adviser to get hold of my OWN pension pot?

J. R. writes: According to the Government, 230,000 pensioners have enjoyed cash back from their pension pot this year. Why am I finding it so hard to do the same?

I am 72 years old and it is now more than three months since I approached Aviva. It continually tells me to appoint a financial adviser.

Why is my pension provider advocating that I consider transferring my funds into another product before it will release my funds, as I wish? I ASKED Aviva to look into this, and the answer is that you have an old-style pension plan. You need to transfer your pension pot to a modern policy that allows you to do what you want, which is to take a quarter of the money in tax-free cash and then use drawdown to take out more whenever you wish.

Aviva has told me that it does highlight the benefits of receiving financial advice.

It added: ‘However, Mr R is able to transfer his pension either with or without the assistance of an independent financial adviser.’

Try again, and this time you should get what you want.