WITHDRAWING MONEY FROM YOUR PENSION

TODAY’S BLOG

WITHDRAWING MONEY FROM YOUR PENSION

I was recently asked to contribute to a piece that appeared in The Telegraph on 15/02/2019. The journalist, Jonathan Jones had heard of me and asked if I would offer some insight into the maths that he was posed with.

The short version is that a 69-year old reader had a pension pot of about £500,000 and wanted £35,000 a year as income, which is about 7% of the fund. The crunch question is was this sustainable?

Sustainable Withdrawal Rate

The short answer is no it isn’t likely to be. However, it is all about context, for starters, the investors other assets, state of health, lifestyle, marital and family circumstances. However, I was asked to ignore this. In the real world of financial planning, no good adviser would ignore these important elements, but certainly for the sake of maths, I was and remain happy to provide the basic outline.

It is historically “good advice” to assume a 4% income as sustainable. This can increase with inflation each year and ensure that the original fund remains alive. All of this is subject to the real world of investment returns, charges and taxes and to put it bluntly, investor behaviour.

Ringmaster

REVIEWS ARE VITAL

I don’t know any adviser that would set up an investment and a withdrawal of 4% a year and never review this. I imagine there are a few out there, just not those that I meet or have any sort of professional relationship with. All financial planning is based on the premise that life changes and plans need reviewing. Whilst I advocate cash flow modelling, which is a brilliant tool, it is a very good aid to understanding the future, but not predicting it. Life and investment returns are not linear. Stuff happens, things change.

I stand by everything in the article, but would caveat it with some real world experience and impress the need to review. The certainty of outcomes is myth. There is no way that someone can say with certainty, that taking £20,000 a year from a £500,000 will last for another 50 years. Its ought to, based upon historic data, it would have done, but that’s why we review.

High Equity Content

Certainly, more exposure to the real engine of a portfolio (equities / stocks) is vital and the more you have the more likely you are to have a rising income for life, but a far more volatile experience. In the real-world investors behave badly, anxiety turns to fear which turns to panic, which turns into a request to “sell, sell, sell” yet this is almost certainly, always the wrong thing to do in a portfolio of globally diverse holdings. I demonstrated this using our software, showing the historic sustainable withdrawal rates for different portfolios and the chance of future success. We also revealed the impact of life expectancy. Of course Jonathan didn’t have the page space to go into depth on the fullness of our conversation and he may also have been heavily edited. That is the difficult life of any journalist, who must create something to catch attention and fill space. The job of a financial planner is explanation, understanding and constructing a robust, reviewed ongoing service.

The art of self-delusion

This is something that many investors, particularly DIY investors believe that they are immune to (lack of fear). Most end up chasing returns, usually buying the current hot tips or best performers. However, this is not the Premier League, it is the real world of investing, past performance guarantees nothing and is certainly no indicator of the future when it comes to stock selection “success”. See Dalbar.com for information about how badly investors underperform.

I think the article is a good overview, but please do not infer advice from it. Context is everything. For all I know, the investor concerned was born in 1950 with a life expectancy of a few months and may have a much younger spouse with three or four children. The advice should always be suitable to the circumstances of the investor.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

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GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

WITHDRAWING MONEY FROM YOUR PENSION2023-12-01T12:17:34+00:00

FREEDOM BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY

Freedom Brings Responsibility

I hope that you are aware that since April 2015 pensions have had considerable improvements. Rather than having to buy an annuity anyone with a pension can simply take income from age 55 however they want (note that this age is gradually rising to be within 10 years of your State Pension Age which you can check here). As income it is taxable, but your pension fund has the benefit of 25% of anything “crystallised” being tax free. This you may remember, concerned some that there would be a rush on Lamborghini’s… which didn’t materialise. Mind you at £270,000 for a new Aventador, you would need to withdraw around double that to be able to pay the net price.

Many of you have been accessing your pensions under these new conditions. According to the latest HMRC data in Q2 (April to end June) of 2018 the number of individuals to whom payments were made reached 264,000. A total of £2,269m was paid out to them. The system has now been in place for 3 years and the value of all payments is now nearly £20,000m (some would say that’s £20bn).

Gone in 0-60 Seconds?

The basic caveat is that once your pension fund is spent, well… its gone. There have been many mistakes made – particularly in terms of taking too much money out and paying tax unnecessarily. As the income from the pension is assessed as income, those that believe that they can simply have their money are right, but invariably forget that the amount means that they must pay 40% or 45% income tax. Clever, or rather sensible planning can keep tax at 20% or less.

The Government and HMRC are probably rather pleased with this, it means that they are taking way more tax than they would have done, particularly as many of those drawing money from pensions are doing so before they are even retired.

Tax First, Ask Questions Later

HMRC also apply their own brand of logic, which is tax first, ask questions later. In other words, you must reclaim tax when too much has been taken. Despite lobbying by financial advisers and the pension industry generally, HMRC aren’t budging on changing their approach, claiming that people are better off paying too much than too little and then having to find money to pay their tax. Since the start of pension freedoms this “over-taxing” has amounted to more than £280m. So hardly a surprise that they won’t budge. Of course, this ought to be reclaimed… but therein lies the problem of theory and practice and in any event the Office of Tax Simplification recently warned that pension freedom withdrawals are poorly understood… one might be forgiven for wondering what on earth the OTS achieve.

To put your mind at ease, you need to complete the snappy titled “P55”to reclaim overpaid tax on your flexible pension. You can find the form here.

Here’s a video of an Aventador being tested by Autocar… no need to form a queue.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

FREEDOM BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY2023-12-01T12:17:54+00:00

Are Annuity Rates on the Rise?

Are Annuity Rates on the Rise?

Annuities may be starting to improve again. Why is this relevant to you? Well, if you plan to retire you would be wise to consider an annuity as an option for all or part of your retirement income. If you are already retired and using a Drawdown arrangement, improvement in rates may also be worth your attention.

New Rates

I recently received an email from one of the UKs largest insurance companies advising of change to their annuity rates. In general rates have begun to increase upwards. As an example, a 65 year-old with the maximum single life annuity from £100,000 would now receive £4,944 a year rather than £4,896 a year, an increase of about 1%.

How long is a lifetime of income?

Anyone wanting to build in a spouse’s pension of 50% (i.e. once the “owner” (annuitant) of the annuity dies, income would reduce to 50% for the remainder of the spouse’s life) can expect the same fund to buy an annuity of £4,420 up from £4,375. These are for level annuities (the income remains the same). You could build in a degree of inflation-linking, doing so would reduce the initial income for a joint life annuity £2,818 a year increasing by 3% each year.

The crossover point

The alarming detail is that it would take 17 years (in my example) for the inflation (rising) annuity to match the annual income of the level annuity, at which point it continues to pay out more each year (i.e. a 65-year-old would be 82). It takes a total of 30 years before the total income paid out would exceed that of the level annuity. Remember that this is for someone that started their annuity at age 65.

In truth, there are better annuity rates out in the market. You should also note that if you have any form of health problems, or smoke, you would probably qualify for an enhanced annuity. However most people would look at a pot of £100,000 and think an income of £4,420 is not terribly much and any “bells and whistles” added just make it worse. Hence pension freedoms and the abolition of the requirement to buy an annuity.

However, despite appearances annuities offer a guaranteed lifetime income, no other alternative really does that, but instead relies upon investment returns, which obviously means risk. Since pension freedoms (April 2015) many people have chosen not to buy an annuity and have taken their income from a drawdown pension instead. Unfortunately, according to recent research, many will run their pension pot dry within 12 years. Most people take too much it would seem, or at least an unsustainable amount. Almost everyone under-estimates their life expectancy, which is a crucial discussion to have and one that needs regular reassessment.

So now you know that:

  • There are different and better (higher) annuities available in the market
  • Health issues might provide a better (enhanced) annuity
  • Drawdown pensions carry risk
  • Life expectancy is a key factor
  • Most people are expected to run out of money
  • Review, review, review – especially if you have a Drawdown pension

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Are Annuity Rates on the Rise?2023-12-01T12:18:18+00:00

The Future of Pensions

The Future of Pensions

I am currently at my annual conference in Wales – the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI) with whom the IFP – Institute of Financial Planning merged last year. Yesterday we covered a number of valuable topics, but the talk that resonated most with me was from former Pensions Minister MP Steve Webb, who talked about the future of pensions – amongst other things.

I had to admit that my BS radar is usually on hyperdrive when listening to any politician these days, which is probably a sad reflection on me, however I was very impressed by what he had to say, albeit he did not paint a terribly pleasant picture of the future. Of course, only time will tell if his predictions come about and in fairness, he was quick to remind us of the problems with predicting the future, particularly in a climate where since the last general election all of the major political parties have changed their leaders and the country has voted to leave the EU.

Book cover of Yes Minister - A Very Courageous Decision

Play it again Sam…(or Phil)

Webb was clear that changing pensions is pretty difficult and appears to be a low priority to either the Government of Civil Service. He gave an insight into the slow turning wheels of Whitehall, sounding much like an episode from Yes Minister. Given all the change that we have had (State Pension, Auto Enrolment, Pension Freedoms, Annual Allowance Taper, Lifetime Allowance…) he suspects and urges a period of quiet inaction from the Chancellor, Philip Hammond. This is particularly pertinent to those concerned about the loss or reductions of tax relief on pension contributions or changes to the tax free cash entitlement. He made the case that the public and financial planners could not plan ahead in confidence if the rules are changed every year, yet warned at Chancellors are easily tempted by ideas to collect more tax, however short-sighted.

Whilst on the subject of tax he made it clear that the Treasury are naturally inclined to taxing now rather than in the years ahead, so there is a very real pressure to take the view that tax relief reductions in the short-term outweigh the advantages of taxed incomes in the future, so by inference, a system of loss of tax relief and no taxation of pension income is a genuine prospect. He argued that this was evidenced by the Treasury’s love for ISAs and obvious contempt for pensions with the Lifetime Allowance reductions (and associated tax penalties) and the new tapered annual allowance. Personally he would scrap the LTA but retain a cap on annual pension contributions (which I certainly agree with). He did point out that of course putting trust in future Chancellors to honour a commitment not to tax pension income in the future required a high degree of faith, which  deliberately provoked some mirth from the audience.

Turning to Brexit, he simply outlined his view that interest rates are likely to be very low for a long time, which would place pressure on people to look for better returns than the puny sums they achieve from their savings. He argued that this would likely lead to yet more scams as people fall for yet more illusory promises of high returns. He also warned of the impact on final salary pension schemes which, because of the assets that they hold and the way calculations are performed, would have larger deficits in their pensions (due to low interest rates) probably leading to some, or perhaps a majority of companies trimming their dividend payments.. which in turn makes the task of achieving investment income harder still.

He seemed to have little regard for our regulator of whom he said was “not fit for purpose” and thought the new LISA was perhaps the most badly constructed investment idea for years. If you follow me on social media, you will know my thoughts on this already.

So, whilst Steve Webb found a receptive audience, I was left with the sinking feeling that there was little hope for common sense to return to the Treasury… but who knows… we all get to find out in a few weeks time for the Autumn Statement.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

The Future of Pensions2023-12-01T12:19:06+00:00

Pensions: Lifetime Allowance and Mad Max

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-bloggerPensions: Lifetime Allowance and Mad Max

You have probably heard of Mad Max – its latest incarnation is currently in UK cinemas. You may have heard about the Lifetime Allowance – which has been part of the pension vocabulary since 2006 or “A-Day”. Suffice to say that I believe that the Lifetime Allowance is rather mad.

In the event that you are a politician and reading this, may I ask why you think pensions are important? To my mind, pensions should be encouraged. The end result of a pension should be that people living in the UK are able to provide for themselves above the State Pension, so support their lifestyle. This has several obvious benefits – creating financially independent adults, not requiring State support. Having income means that income tax can be levied and collected to help pay for our society. Let’s also not forget that income is there for using (spending) which enables trade to occur and wealth to be created and so on.

A World of Plenty?

It would seem that politicians generally think not having a rising burden on the State is a good thing. Indeed encouraging pensions with tax relief is the “sweetener” or “bait”. Much like the film Mad Max, we probably don’t want to create a society reliant upon the occassional benevolence of the prevailing “Lord”. Surely we would like a society where all prosper? OK we know the UK has limited resources, so adjust the tax relief, but don’t make it hard or even pointless to save. Even the current regime isn’t tempting enough for millions of people that don’t or cannot save for their future.

Mad Max

Scarcity

At present pension contributions are restricted, which seems fair enough, but the amount that the pension pot grows to is also restricted by the Lifetime Allowance. This is currently £1.25million, which sounds like a reasonable sum, but in practice isn’t as much as you’d like to think, given that it has to last for the remainder of your life. The Lifetime Allowance has already reduced over the years from £1.8m and if the Chancellor does what he suggested he would in the last Budget, it is likely to shrink to £1.0m next April. In other words £250,000 of the Lifetime Allowance will be lost – or more accurately invoke a tax penalty of £137,500.

Mad Max and Excess Tax

If the Lifetime Allowance is exceeded, there is a tax charge of 55% on the excess. OK there are some ways that you can protect your higher pre-legislation allowance, but these are designed by bureacrats and “problematic” to say the least. Essentially this excess tax charge punishes those that save or get good investment results….  let’s not forget that the income from pensions is subject to income tax anyway. So I fail to understand why we don’t simply abolish the Lifetime Allowance and all the protections that have surrounded it. Your pension fund should be just that – a pot that you can actually use with confidence.

Mad Max – Fury Road is currently in UK cinemas, starring Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult. The Chancellor, George Osborne has his next Budget on 8th July 2015…

Dominic Thomas

Pensions: Lifetime Allowance and Mad Max2023-12-01T12:40:10+00:00

Pensions: Taking Your Pension? Beware of Tax

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-bloggerTaking Your Pension? Beware of Tax

When the Chancellor announced the abolition of the requirement for most people to buy an annuity with their pension fund, it was somewhat unexpected. Arguably it was one of the most radical shake ups to pensions in decades. However as time progresses, the wisdom of allowing people to do whatever they want with their own money is experiencing some problems. If you are taking your pension, you need to beware of tax.

Tax

The main advantage of pensions is tax relief. At the moment (who knows if things will change in the Chancellors budget next month). Currently most investors will receive tax releif of 20% higher rate taxpayers get 40% – though the difference has to be claimed via self-assessment tax returns, not granted automatically.

Money in a pension has tax advantages

Whilst invested as a pension, the funds are free from income tax and capital gains tax – which means that they grow faster (free from tax). If you take money from a pension, (possible from age 55) 25% of the fund is tax free and the balance when taken as income (regular, ad hoc or all at once) is taxed at your highest rate of income tax. On death the new rules mean the pension fund can pass to the estate without inheritance tax.

Taking money doesn’t have to be taxing

howtomarryamillionaireposter

It would appear that due presumably to a belief that pensions are “bad” some people have been rushing to withdraw their pension in entirety, which of course results in a signficant income tax bill and the realisation that once its gone… well, it’s gone. The media initially joked about people buying a Lamborghini and the prospect of access to wealth attracting the wrong sort of attention.  For those that don’t spend the money all at once it means that they seek other ways to use the money to generate income to support a lifestyle…. which means investing it. See my earlier post about this.

Most alternatives are subject to tax

Investments are subject to income tax, inheritance tax and capital gains tax…. with a few exceptions such as ISAs – but with limits on the amount that can be invested each tax year. Other tax favourable investments tend to be much more “entrepreneurial” in flavour – EIS, SEIS, VCT for example, most of which carry significantly higher risk due to a small focus on shares in a single company or a very small number of companies.

So be careful – get advice, there is much to consider. Pensions aren’t “bad” in fact they can be really rather good if set up properly. The issue is really to ensure that your pension (which is just a term for income in retirement) suits your planned lifestyle….

Dominic Thomas

Pensions: Taking Your Pension? Beware of Tax2023-12-01T12:40:10+00:00

Pensions: New Freedoms

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Pensions Freedom

Have you heard about pensions freedom? Are you approaching retirement and thinking that this is excellent news, you can have your entire pension? Well you are right, but as ever there is a catch. You are free to self-destruct, it is your right to do so (and I’m not being patronising).

On the one hand freedom is good right? but with it comes responsibility (why do I sound like a Spiderman scriptwriter). By responsibility I mean, once you spend it, whether thats taking it as a lump sum or buyng an annuity or leaving it as a Flexible Access Drawdown pension, once it has gone – that’s it. Nothing left… except any other pension income you may have such as the State pension.v_for_vendetta

So this is all about knowing what you have and what you need. Something that no British Government has ever managed to get right for themselves, yet here we are, with new freedoms. So you have to figure out how long you will live to work out how much you can afford to take out each year. Actually rather more than that, you have to predict future inflation rates, mortality rates, investment returns and tax rates…. to name a few “elements”. Of course you could get a financial planner like me to help by doing some cashflow modelling and explaining the options and reviewing progress regularly or you could do it yourself.

Today I learned about a term called the IKEA effect. This is when we place a disproportianately high value on something that has been partially made us. Go on look it up. This is precisely what happens to DIY investors… that portfolio I built, its not bad. Actually the truth is rather different. I mean no disprect to IKEA or DIY investors. This is about a price-point in the market – what you can afford. Arguably you will have to live with both (furniture and your DIY portfolio) but your portfolio has to last your lifetime. I’m all for consumer empowerment and the removal of elist jargon and ivory towers, but information is not the same as experience or indeed knowledge. I wonder if you remember the John West tinned fish TV adverts? its the fish that John West rejects that make them the best. In other words, selection, some might call it curation – is vital.

Building the right portfolio to last for life is a fairly daunting challenge, for a few this isn’t going to be much of a problem, but for the vast majority of people it will be. Most people do not pay attention to the holdings in their ISAs or pensions. Most are in the funds or more likely single fund, that the adviser put them in when they started their pension. Little attention has been paid to assessing the level of contributions needed, frankly its more like lucky dip… and who can blame them! the jargon is a huge barrier, statements are fairly unclear and the rules keep changing, little wonder people don’t spend much time looking after one of their largest assets. Yet suddenly at the point of retirement, they are expecting to become investment experts. Whilst the Government may say that people should be trusted with their own money, thats fine if it relates to the straight-forward stuff of running a budget and basic banking, but when it comes to understanding asset allocation, volatility, sequencing risk, safe withdrawal rates, reductions in yield… well frankly its taxing even for the experts. Your pension is not a shelving unit from IKEA, its more like fitting a pace-maker, one that has to keep you going.

My advice is to get advice – don’t get sucked into short-term thinking and getting some degree of satisfaction from raiding your pension to show your displeasure with the pension company.  Certainly there are better pensions, but you really need to get sensible advice to explore your options properly. You wouldn’t build a house without architectural plans (I hope)… the same is true when it comes to designing a portfolio for life.

Dominic

Pensions: New Freedoms2023-12-01T12:40:08+00:00

Pension Timebomb

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Pension Timebomb

Ok its April 1st, but this isn’t an April Fools Day joke…. this is data from the Policy Exchange, founded in 2002 to help contribute the national thinking about society. I don’t know if it is the case, but it would appear that the Coalition Government had a look at this before deciding to introduce the pension rules that come into effect next week. However if you are someone still saving for a pension or an employer, the findings are not great reading, with both needng to contribute rather more to pensions. Clicking on the graphic should make it larger.

Help to Save: Defusing the pensions time bomb

Dominic Thomas
Pension Timebomb2023-12-01T12:40:03+00:00

Dispatches: How to Blow Your Pension

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Dispatches: How to Blow Your Pension

Last night Channel 4 showed a 30 minute programme called “How to Blow Your Pension”. The premise being that the new pension rules might result in thousands of “pensioners” cashing in their pension pots, blowing the lot only to run out of money. You can see the show on the 4OD website should you wish to. The intention was good, but the execution rather miserable and once again missing the opportunity to educate people and whilst Michael Buerk had a good reputation as a BBC newsreader, clearly he doesn’t appreciate that a document from a pension provider is not actually advice – but information about options. Frankly it isn’t that much of a jungle out there, but you will need proper advice, this is not the time to become a DIY internet “expert” it has to work and last. Just because someone has teeth that they care for, doesn’t mean that they should do their own dentistry. Just because you earn, handle and spend money does not make you best placed to do a proper job of planning and generating income for the rest of your life… So I thought I’d have a go at explaining the issues.Dispatches Blow your pension

New Pension Rules – Simple

Pension rules are changing, from April 6th 2015 anyone aged 55 will be able to access their entire investment based pension pot should they wish to. There will be no compulsion to buy an annuity (an income for life). The principles have not changed – in that 25% of the pot is treated as tax free and the remainder is treated as income when you take it, however you take it – and so subject to income tax at your relevant rate of tax. You can still buy annuities should you want to. That’s it.

Running out of Money

The difficulty is that for most people their pension needs to last as long as they do…. ideally a bit longer if they have a spouse that outlives them too. So in practice you need to be careful about how much you take, its got to last and once its gone, its gone. So you have to guess how long you and your spouse might live (clue – actuaries do this for a living and designed annuities).

Make a Plan

So you will also need to reflect on how much income you need, what plans you have and it would be sensible to allow for some unexpected costs. You may need to pay for your own care or medical treatment – if you wish to choose how this is provided to you. You will also need to reflect on the impact of inflation, which at the moment is at record lows – but do the things you pay for really have such a low rate of inflation? and making a guess now for the next 20, 30 or perhpas 40 years of retirement needs some proper thought. If you don’t buy an annuity (which for many will be a very sensible option) the fund will need to grow (just to stand still and keep pace with inflation at the very least) – so how much investment risk is appropriate? what returns do you really need? what happens if these aren’t achieved? how will the portfolio be looked after? … and so on.

Review the Plan

As a result of these new “freedoms” (which some already enjoy anyway) you have a plethora of choices and the truth is that these need to be reviewed – in fact thats the beauty of it all, you get to alter your decisions (unlike simply buying an annuity and having to live with the consequences for the remainder of your life). The ability to access the money means that the crooks are on the scent… be it “pension liberation” or rubbishy investments that aren’t regulated and promise more than they could ever deliver. An independent financial adviser can sort the wheat from the chaff, but a financial planner, will do that and also help you plan your income requirements to suit your unique requirements.

Was that really so hard?

Dominic Thomas

Dispatches: How to Blow Your Pension2023-12-01T12:39:51+00:00

Talking Money – Pension Freedom

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-bloggerTalking Money – Pension Freedom

Clients should now have recieved a hard copy of Talking Money. This issue provides a little more “flesh on the bone” about the new pension freedom that the Chancellor outlined in his Budget. There are many very positive aspects of the changes announced and some are already in action. However some caution is needed and I imagine that there are likely to be some adjustments to the final terms, which are likely to be announced in the Autumn statement next month.solomons-IFA-Smart-money-magazine-cover-NovDec-2014

One of the main issues is that despite this making “grown up pensions” and providing people with choice, this does also come with a plethora of options that need thoughtful and careful reflection. Whilst the Chancellor told us that everyone would have free advice at the point of retirement, this has already been reduced to”free guidance” and in practice that means going along to the Citizens Advice Bureau to speak to someone who will almost certainly provide a guide and then refer you to an independent financial adviser.

As you may know, I spend a fair bit of the year attending conferences and training sessions. This is part of my own continual professional development (CPD) but there’s no lip-servcie to this – its pretty vital. The rules for pensions have altered, scrap that, been revolutionised in a “landmark” year for pensions. However despite the appearance of simplicity, there is even more need for good advice and for those that end up opting for a flexible pension rather than an annuity would be wise to review this decision regularly (one of the advantages of making it) and give proper consideration to guaranteed alternatives.

There are about 7.7million employed workers between the ages of 50-64 in the UK according to ONS reports. Even if there were an even demographic spread, that suggests a tidal wave of over 500,000 people reaching 65 each year. There are not enough hours in the day or qualified advisers to currently facilitate this easily. So make sure that your friends and colleagues are aware of all the options, but above all working with someone that puts pensions in their right context – your income to suit your lifestyle.

Dominic Thomas

Talking Money – Pension Freedom2023-12-01T12:39:36+00:00
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