Pre and Post Retirement Planning
There are so many options available to an individual at retirement, that preparation for this event is crucial, and should be started at least six months before the planned date to start taking your pension.
You may have accumulated more than one pension arrangement through your working life, which could be one or more of the following:
- Occupational pension scheme
- Additional voluntary scheme
- Retirement annuity contract
- Section 32 buy out bond
- Personal pension plan
- Stakeholder pension
Where should you buy your pension? What benefit options should you be seeking at retirement? Unfortunately most people leave it too late, and accept what is offered to them without considering the alternatives.
For instance, the majority of occupational schemes offer widow/widower benefits. If you are not married at retirement and you are unlikely to marry after retirement these benefits are irrelevant and you will have foregone some of your pension to accommodate this facility.
If you purchase a single life annuity from an insurance company, they will provide you with an income for the rest of your life. On your death the insurance company will retain the balance of your pension fund, in other words, the remainder of the fund is lost to your beneficiaries.
There are other types of pension arrangements now available whereby, on the death of the plan holder, the residual of the fund will be passed on to named dependants after the payment of a nominal amount of tax.
Pre-retirement pension planning is so important. This is a specialist area of the market and Financial Advisers are required to have special qualifications by the Financial Services Authority in order to transact certain classes of pension provision. Peter Easton is a pensions specialist and he will be pleased to undertake a full review and analysis of your current pension arrangements and make firm recommendations in order to maximise your pension benefit at and after retirement.
Post-retirement planning is of equal importance, to ensure that advantage is taken of all tax relief available to you and to ensure that the required level of income is sustainable.