PFS members will donate their time and expertise under the pro bono service.
They will offer advice on a range of Financial Planning considerations including pensions, insurance, mortgages, savings and investments.
The PFS has partnered with the On Course Foundation, a charitable body that supports the recovery of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans through introducing them to golf and educating them about employment opportunities within that industry.
The new initiative will be offering recovering service personnel and veterans access to free generic financial advice.
Personal Finance Society chief executive Keith Richards said the new initiative offered advisers another opportunity to engage in the profession’s expanding programme of pro bono work.
“Pro bono work is a key feature of most professions and an important part of our ongoing campaign to build trust among consumers and consumer organisations,” he said.
“Our members have shown they are keen to give something back to the community, and this latest pro bono initiative has already received tremendous support from our members across the country, many of whom are ex-servicemen and women themselves.”
The new initiative will be officially launched in the first quarter of 2017. As part of its first phase, members of the On Course Foundation will be offered a free pro bono consultation with a fully qualified and regulated financial adviser. The service provided under the scheme will focus on generic financial guidance and awareness, which may extend to full advice where required.
On Course Foundation managing director Alistair McKay Forbes said the new initiative was developed to address the increasing need for ex-service personnel to gain access to financial advice.
“Since inception, but increasingly following greater active engagement of our armed forces in the Middle East, the Foundation has become aware that many veterans are in receipt of substantial sums of money as a result of either payments from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or insurance-based payouts,” he said.
“In many cases, the amounts involved are of a level that the veteran has never had to contemplate or manage in the past. This has placed them in a position of vulnerability, ranging from sub-optimal advice and inappropriate advice that doesn’t meet the long term interests of the veteran, through to more blatant fraudulent activity and financial scams.”
“I am delighted that the Personal Finance Society has joined us in developing a programme where veterans can be placed in a less vulnerable and better informed position via receipt of a free consultation with one of its members.”