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Pre-Retirement Planning
Saving for retirement is something that most of us put off for as long as we can. But the reality is that the sooner you start paying into a pension the higher your income in retirement is likely to be. If you're working you're usually building up the right to a basic State Pension – and possibly an additional State pension – but these may not be enough to give you the standard of living you want. Some people are very fortunate in having a pension scheme provided by their employers, some of whom may even guarantee the benefits at retirement. However, even this may not be adequate if you have not been in the pension scheme for a very long time.
You may have neglected your pension due to budget constraints, but you may also have older style pension contracts in poor performing funds that you have not reviewed. We offer a review of your existing pension arrangements, to check that these still offer good value. Many older pension schemes do actually come with some very high charges and you may find that it may be in your best interests to transfer an old pension to a new pension contract with lower charges.
How Much Should I Save
As a general rule of thumb most advisers would recommend saving about 15% of your income in to a pension if your starting from your early twenties. If your starting later, have had a career break or want to retire early then you would need to save more in line with the shorter timeframe in which to build up your pension fund
Don't forget a fund of £100,000 today would only buy you typically less than £6,456 pa before tax (based on a male non-smoker age 65 and a 50% spouses pension aged 62, level annuity with a 5 year guarantee) and this annuity does Not rise with inflation.
Last Minute Pension Contrbutions
Post -Retirement Planning
Once you have built up your pension fund and you want to take the benefits it pays to shop around. You may be able to get as much as a third more pension income by taking the benefits through another provider other than your existing pension company.
The most common method of taking benefits is through the purchase of an annuity or an impaired life annuity, where you give the insurance company the pension fund, and they provide you with an income for life.
There are other methods, of converting a pension fund into an income such as income drawdown and phased retirement.
Contact us now on FREE Phone 0800 567 0018 for your free consultation.
Pensions & Divorce Important change in legislation
From the 6th of April 2009 the treatment of "Safeguarded Rights" will change. Safeguarded Rights are the contracted out portion of a pension following a share or split arrangement after a divorce/ dissolution of a marrige or civil partnership. These will be abolished entierly from thhe 6th of April 2009 in the Pension act 2008, and will become Non-Protected Rights or normal benefits i.e. can be taken from age 50 until the 5th April 2010 and from age 55 thereafter.
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