Demand from high-net-worth clients for guidance on Defined Benefit pension schemes increased five fold last year, a wealth firm has revealed.

UBS Wealth Management said that from 2011 to 2014, 1% of its pensions advice for clients related to Defined Benefit pensions. This rose to 5% in 2016.

And it expects 10% of pensions advisory work this year to be based on guidance around Defined Benefit.

High-net-worth clients are re-evaluating their options in the wake of falling gilts and interest rates boosting transfer values to new highs, the firm stated.

UBS also expects to see more demand from clients for advice on investing the larger transfer values.

Keith Sheehan, deputy head of Financial Planning at UBS Wealth Management, said: “There is no denying that some of the current transfer values are attractive. Yet, it is important that people don’t let the face value distract from their personal circumstances. Taking a cash lump sum in place of regular payments will not suit everybody’s needs.

“For many of our clients who have chosen to take a transfer value, their approach to investing has changed entirely with the pension freedoms. With a pension fund, rather than a pension income, many clients are now able to use the capital to invest in longer term investments, with a higher capacity for risk and the prospect of greater liberty on how to use their pension funds.”

UBS’s Investor Watch report in 2016 explored UK investors’ attitudes towards retirement and Financial Planning. The survey showed how investors would use their pension:

• 48% would use it to generate income

• 40% would use it for capital consumption

• 32% would spend it on gifts to family or friends

• 8% would launch a new business

• 8% would use it for angel investing.