A consultation has started about developing a Retirement Quality Mark as a companion to the Pension Quality Mark (PQM).

This would be intended to meet the needs of savers and trustees by assessing retirement products against the quality of their governance and communications.
PQM board chair Adrian Boulding explained: "We believe a Retirement Quality Mark could make a real difference to scheme members by ensuring strong governance to retirement products so they operate in the customers' best interests - not just at the point of sale but on an ongoing basis."
He said the new scheme would make drawdown plans much more useable for ordinary people who lacked financial expertise but would manage their own retirement income in future, and would also help trustees to assist scheme members to make informed decisions through the effective signposting of good value products.
The consultation paper is open for comments until 15 January, after which the board expects to invite applications for a Retirement Quality Mark towards the middle of 2016.