Pensions
& Retirement
Pensions
& Retirement
your retirement
Pensions Advice and Retirement Planning Brighton
When it comes to retirement, many people are doing too little too late. A state pension won’t go far on its own. But putting away even a small amount early on can make a big difference to life when you retire.
Pension plans offer some great tax breaks too. And, you can even contribute to your pension when you don’t work.
We’ll look at the whole market to find the right pension plan for you. Here you can find out a bit more about the different types of pensions available.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
– Albert Einstein
Money couldn’t buy you friends, but get a better class of enemy.
– Spike Milligan
In spite of the cost of living, it’s still popular.
– Mike Gill
When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.
– Oscar Wilde
You know you’re getting old when you stop to tie your shoes and wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
– George Burns
Our services & skills
- Personal Pensions
- Stakeholder Pensions
- Company Pensions
- Workplace Pensions
- Unsecured Pension
- Alternatively Secured Pension
- Retirement: Drawing Your Pension
- Lifetime Annuities
- Phased Retirement
Personal pensions
With this pension the money you save into your plan is invested and then used at retirement. So, the more you save, the better your pension should be at retirement.
When you retire, you purchase pension benefits using the money in your personal pension. These can be taken as either income, or income with a tax free lump sum (The Pension Commencement lump sum).
The benefits can also be transferred to a plan which offers unsecured pension benefits (see the section on Unsecured Pension). This type of plan lets you use the benefits whilst your pension fund is still being invested.
Your pension can be protected against inflation too. You can also protect your income in the event of your death (see the Annuities page).
Please note that pension benefits can be drawn from age 55 onwards.
To find out more about Personal Pensions, just get in touch.
Stakeholder Pensions
These pension plans are similar to Personal Pensions. They’re flexible, portable – and you can even take them with you if you change jobs.
Here’s what else Stakeholder Pensions offer:
- Tax relief on contributions at your highest marginal rate.
- A money purchase scheme.
- No charges or penalties if you stop, increase, decrease or restart your pension, or, if you transfer to another stakeholder scheme.
- A default investment choice, designed to help make purchasing a Stakeholder pension plan easier.
To find out more about Stakeholder Pensions, just get in touch.
Company Pensions
Lots of people who work are members of an employer-related pension scheme. But these pensions often come under different names, like Employers’ Pension Schemes, Superannuation and also Company Pensions.
There are also Occupational Pension schemes. And these come in two basic types:
- Defined Benefit (also known as Final Salary Schemes)
- Defined Contribution (also known as Money Purchase schemes)
These are very different in terms of what they offer and how they work. Many firms are now switching from Final Salary to Money Purchase Schemes, as they’re cheaper.
To find out more about Company Scheme Pensions, just get in touch.
Workplace Pensions
In 2012 the Government introduced mandatory requirements for employers to enrol their employees into a qualifying pension scheme – without employees having to take any action.
Unless an employee decides to opt out of the scheme, all employers will be required to make contributions into a pension scheme on behalf of their employee.
These ‘Auto-enrolment’ Schemes are being staged over a 6 year period, with different staging dates for different companies. If you’re an employer, you can find your date by entering your PAYE reference number.
You can also get in touch with our team, who’ll be able to help you with the whole process.
Unsecured Pension
This is a particularly good retirement option for anyone who has pension capital of at least £100,000 (left after the payment of the tax free cash lump sum).
An Unsecured Pension allows an income to be taken directly from the fund itself. It also enhances your retirement options by letting you put off an annuity purchase until a time when it’s more suitable. And these plans still allow up to 25% of the retirement fund to be taken as Tax Free Cash.
These schemes are quite complex and not suitable for everyone. But they can offer a more flexible approach to retirement income. You might want to talk to us first before considering this option
Alternatively Secured Pension
This kind of pension is a form of Unsecured Pension that’s only available from age 75. It works in a similar way to Unsecured Pension plans, but with the following differences:
- The maximum income is set at 90% of the appropriate GAD rate.
- Reviews to set the maximum income limit have to be undertaken annually.
- The minimum income is 55% of the GAD rate, based on an average age of 75.
These restrictions are designed to limit the possibility of exhausting your pension fund before death.
Retirement Income can now be classified under 5 main headings…
Retirement: drawing your pension
- Scheme Pensions – where your income comes directly from your employer’s Occupational Pension Scheme.
- Lifetime Annuity – usually where your income comes from Personal Pensions, Stakeholder Pensions or Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs).
- Unsecured Pension (Income Drawdown) and Phased Retirement.
- Secured Pensions – these are only available from age 75.
- Pension benefits taken under ‘Triviality’ rules.
The pension rules are quite detailed. And they can affect different people in different ways. To see how they might affect you, please contact us.
Retirement: Lifetime Annuities
Here your Money Purchase Pension is converted into an income for the rest of your life – however long you live. You can add other options and get different types depending on your needs and circumstances.
The amount of income an annuity will pay will depend upon a number of things. These include your age, your health and the amount in your pension fund after taking any tax-free cash.
Phased Retirement
These flexible plans segment the personal pension plan to produce pension income. Each year you determine the level of income that you need. This then determines the number of ‘segments’ needed to meet that income level.
The income is made up of a combination of tax free cash and annuity from the individual segments. And, as the remainder of the fund remains invested, it may benefit from any market growth in its underlying investments.
Phased Retirement plans are flexible but also relatively complex. They’re more suited to clients holding pension assets in excess of £100,000.
With this pension the money you save into your plan is invested and then used at retirement. So, the more you save, the better your pension should be at retirement.
When you retire, you purchase pension benefits using the money in your personal pension. These can be taken as either income, or income with a tax free lump sum (The Pension Commencement lump sum).
The benefits can also be transferred to a plan which offers unsecured pension benefits (see the section on Unsecured Pension). This type of plan lets you use the benefits whilst your pension fund is still being invested.
Your pension can be protected against inflation too. You can also protect your income in the event of your death (see the Annuities page).
Please note that pension benefits can be drawn from age 55 onwards.
To find out more about Personal Pensions, just get in touch.
These pension plans are similar to Personal Pensions. They’re flexible, portable – and you can even take them with you if you change jobs.
Here’s what else Stakeholder Pensions offer:
- Tax relief on contributions at your highest marginal rate.
- A money purchase scheme.
- No charges or penalties if you stop, increase, decrease or restart your pension, or, if you transfer to another stakeholder scheme.
- A default investment choice, designed to help make purchasing a Stakeholder pension plan easier.
To find out more about Stakeholder Pensions, just get in touch.
Lots of people who work are members of an employer-related pension scheme. But these pensions often come under different names, like Employers’ Pension Schemes, Superannuation and also Company Pensions.
There are also Occupational Pension schemes. And these come in two basic types:
- Defined Benefit (also known as Final Salary Schemes)
- Defined Contribution (also known as Money Purchase schemes)
These are very different in terms of what they offer and how they work. Many firms are now switching from Final Salary to Money Purchase Schemes, as they’re cheaper.
To find out more about Company Scheme Pensions, just get in touch.
In 2012 the Government introduced mandatory requirements for employers to enrol their employees into a qualifying pension scheme – without employees having to take any action.
Unless an employee decides to opt out of the scheme, all employers will be required to make contributions into a pension scheme on behalf of their employee.
These ‘Auto-enrolment’ Schemes are being staged over a 6 year period, with different staging dates for different companies. If you’re an employer, you can find your date by entering your PAYE reference number.
You can also get in touch with our team, who’ll be able to help you with the whole process.
This is a particularly good retirement option for anyone who has pension capital of at least £100,000 (left after the payment of the tax free cash lump sum).
An Unsecured Pension allows an income to be taken directly from the fund itself. It also enhances your retirement options by letting you put off an annuity purchase until a time when it’s more suitable. And these plans still allow up to 25% of the retirement fund to be taken as Tax Free Cash.
These schemes are quite complex and not suitable for everyone. But they can offer a more flexible approach to retirement income. You might want to talk to us first before considering this option
This kind of pension is a form of Unsecured Pension that’s only available from age 75. It works in a similar way to Unsecured Pension plans, but with the following differences:
- The maximum income is set at 90% of the appropriate GAD rate.
- Reviews to set the maximum income limit have to be undertaken annually.
- The minimum income is 55% of the GAD rate, based on an average age of 75.
These restrictions are designed to limit the possibility of exhausting your pension fund before death.
Retirement Income can now be classified under 5 main headings…
- Scheme Pensions – where your income comes directly from your employer’s Occupational Pension Scheme.
- Lifetime Annuity – usually where your income comes from Personal Pensions, Stakeholder Pensions or Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs).
- Unsecured Pension (Income Drawdown) and Phased Retirement.
- Secured Pensions – these are only available from age 75.
- Pension benefits taken under ‘Triviality’ rules.
The pension rules are quite detailed. And they can affect different people in different ways. To see how they might affect you, please contact us.
Here your Money Purchase Pension is converted into an income for the rest of your life – however long you live. You can add other options and get different types depending on your needs and circumstances.
The amount of income an annuity will pay will depend upon a number of things. These include your age, your health and the amount in your pension fund after taking any tax-free cash.
These flexible plans segment the personal pension plan to produce pension income. Each year you determine the level of income that you need. This then determines the number of ‘segments’ needed to meet that income level.
The income is made up of a combination of tax free cash and annuity from the individual segments. And, as the remainder of the fund remains invested, it may benefit from any market growth in its underlying investments.
Phased Retirement plans are flexible but also relatively complex. They’re more suited to clients holding pension assets in excess of £100,000.
