Nicola Albon

Pension Wise appointments

Two women sitting side by side and looking at each other. One woman, in a dark top, has a laptop. The other woman in a blue top, is taking notes with a pen in a notebook.


From November 2015 to April 2016, I worked in a team of 3 content designers to standardise the advice given at telephone and face-to-face appointments for Pension Wise. We worked closely with our relationship managers and the external partners – The Pensions Advisory Service and Citizens Advice – to write a guide and checklist for the appointment.

Pension Wise was an initiative and website created by HM Treasury.

The appointments needed to run to a set pattern to ensure:

  • consistency in the advice given
  • they did not overrun because the delivery partners were being paid for a number of appointments of a specific length.


How we tested

We tested the appointment guides by sitting in on face-to-face appointments and listening to telephone appointments. We also gathered feedback from those giving the guidance. And then we iterated.


Appointment guides

These screenshots are from drafts that were then iterated (“face-to-face appointments” should be hyphenated).

A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment. The heading says: 'Pension Wise telephone and face to face appointments - guide and checklist
A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment
A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment. The heading says: '1. Legal introduction'
A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment


Making room for flexibility in the appointment

The appointment guides could not be too rigid. This was a conversation between the adviser and 1 or 2 people. The adviser needed to have the flexibility to answer questions when they were asked – rather than move rigidly through a set script.

A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment.
A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment.


Addressing each person’s circumstances

Advisers had to be able to answer more than just questions about the options for taking a pension. They also needed to be able to address each person’s specific circumstances. We wrote information to help them with all the eventualities that we can the advisers could foresee.

A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment.
A screenshot of a document of a guide for pensions advisers giving one-to-one advice during an appointment.



Featured image photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

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