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Personal Finance Society launches consumer education website

24 April 2015

Today sees the launch of the Personal Finance Society's (PFS) new consumer website yourmoney.

In line with its consumer focus remit as a professional body, the website is designed to help consumers make better-informed decisions about money.

yourmoney provides information about key personal finance topics and links to essential money planning tools from organisations such as Money Advice Service, Which? and Moneyfacts.

 The site also helps the public avoid the increasing problem of financial scams by linking to important guidance from The Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority and is timed to coincide with the Government’s latest pension reforms and regulators’ growing concerns over fraud.

Keith Richards, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, explained: “Whilst the new pension freedoms have been welcomed, they have made consumers more susceptible to pension scammers. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to help make sure that the public is aware of this growing threat and to provide support and information to help mitigate the risk.”

The site also aims to raise the profile of financial planning by helping consumers understand what to expect, the costs involved and the value of professional advice.

One of its additional key features is yourmoneyadviser, which provides the public with a fully-searchable directory of more than 22,000 accredited financial advisers – the most comprehensive database of its kind.

All the advisers listed are members of the PFS, who commit to regularly update their knowledge and are bound by the society's code of professional ethics. Evidence of their qualifications and statements of professional standing (SPS), are all clearly validated and displayed.

Richards went on: “yourmoney gives consumers the tools to make better decisions about their own money or where they would benefit from professional advice. The website therefore helps build trust and confidence in the profession by encouraging consumers to appreciate the value of professional standards and when it is appropriate.”

Head of marketing, Mark Hutchinson, added: “There are a plethora of commercial adviser directories in the market already, but consumer groups told us that one from the professional body would reassure the public. They can now find an adviser they can trust, in the same way they can find a surveyor through the RICS website, or a solicitor by using the Law Society.

“yourmoneyadviser will become the authoritative place for consumers to validate or find a professional financial adviser local to them.”

The Personal Finance Society's previous adviser search database, www.findanadviser.org has now been redirected to the yourmoneyadviser section of the new website, which can be accessed at: www.thepfs.org/yourmoney