It is hard to see why anyone would choose uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS) when flexi-access drawdown (FAD) is available. Even if you wanted to take 25% tax free cash combined with 75% taxable income on every withdrawal, FAD will allow you to do that. The difference is that you aren’t forced to take those proportions every time, as you are with UFPLS.
And one of the other great advantages of FAD is that you are allowed to take your tax free pension commencement lump sum (PCLS) as a lump sum or as an ‘income’ without taking any taxable income at all. That could be really handy for clients who still have relatively high earnings in the first few years of their retirement. They could even make contributions to their pension at the same time as drawing the PCLS without being limited by the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA). Just be careful about the recycling rules, though. They can hit people who reinvest their PCLS.
In fact anything UFPLS can do, FAD can do better, as the song nearly put it.
Mind you, what the tax rules allow in theory and what you can actually get a platform or other provider to do for a client in practice are often two quite different things. Some providers don’t offer FAD; and some don’t even offer UFPLS.
Some do offer FAD but if you probe a little, it turns out that the full flexibility of FAD is not yet available in practice. So in reality your client might not be able to take all PCLS or all income, or vary the proportions from time to time to suit their tax planning needs.
So before you make recommendations that are based on complete flexibility, check with the provider about what’s currently possible. You might be in for an unpleasant surprise.