Retirement Income Advice Assessment Tool (RIAAT)

When completing the template, an assessor should ensure that the information they enter, including values, notes, additional comments, rationale and evidence, is sufficiently detailed for a third-party assessor to: 

• get an accurate and complete overview of the relevant evidence on the client file 
• form a view - without the need to refer to the relevant evidence - on whether the firm has collected the necessary information to assess suitability and complied with any applicable suitability requirements 

Yes. In this case you should complete 1 RIAAT for every 5 plans you are advising on. 

You can duplicate the information recorded in your first RIAAT for this purpose.

You cannot assess advice as suitable if there is a Material Information Gap. 

In this case, you can only conclude that advice is unsuitable. This is because you do not have the necessary information to assess suitability. You can find more information on the process in section 1 of the RIAAT instructions which explain how to fill in the Information Tab of the RIAAT.

No. We will not be using the RIAAT to assess compliance with the Consumer Duty before the Duty’s implementation.

When we published the RIAAT in February 2024, it was a tool which firms could choose to use when assessing their own Retirement Income advice.  Use of the RIAAT is not a requirement, and there are no minimum qualification levels for users. 

Where we undertake reviews of Retirement Income advice as part of our supervision and enforcement investigations of firms, we use the RIAAT. Our assessors, and those responsible for quality assurance, must hold an appropriate level 4 advisory qualification and have previous industry experience.  

Where we engage third parties to undertake reviews of Retirement Income advice on our behalf, we expect the same qualification standard to be applied.