There are a number of important things to consider when deciding your retirement goals:
- Don’t delay! – any delay in saving for your retirement significantly affects what you’ll live off at retirement. As you can see, a delay of just 10 years can significantly reduce your retirement income.
- Work out how much you should be savings. Take a look at our Pensions calculator, this will give you an initial indication of how much you should/could be saving.
- Earn Valuable Tax breaks – the government give valuable support to those who contribute to a pension, in the form of tax relief. The tax relief is based on the rate of income tax you pay, therefore you could have a tax saving of 40% on your pension contribution.
- Investing in your pension – any contribution you make into a pension will be invested into a fund, with a view to growing your money. The fund or funds we choose will be decided on, once we have reviewed the market after our initial meeting where we have conducted a full financial review which includes your attitude to risk.
- Making sure your pension changes with you – as your circumstances change you should bear your pension in mind & we will ensure that your retirement planning is flexible so regardless of your employment status, we can help you choose the
pension that is most appropriate and works for you.
Leaving Service Options/Buy Out Bonds/Retirement Bonds: are a stand alone pension contracts or bonds which allow you to transfer your accumulated pension fund from a company pension arrangement into a pension bond in your own name.
Many people throughout their working life change employment either by choice or through redundancy.
Once you leave your employment you will be issued with ‘leaving service options’ in relation to the pension fund you have built up in the company pension scheme, included in these is the option to transfer to a new Retirement Bond or Buy Out bond.
There are a number of advantages of having your accumulated pension fund transferred into a pension plan in your own name, such as:
- You can choose which provider you place your pension fund with have access to the most competitive contracts.
- You now have total control of the timing of accessing benefits of your pension, in accordance with pension rules (you could possibly access your pension benefits from age 50 onwards & you do not have to retire from a subsequent employment!)
- All communication on your pension now go directly to you.
- You are in control of the investment and the investment choices.
- Your pension is no longer under your previous employers pension plan therefore trustee signature/permission are no longer required for any dealings with the fund
- The need for you to ‘stay in touch’ with your previous employer is removed.
- The full fund value of your pension is payable to your estate on death after it has been transferred to a retirement bond.
- If you were to leave your pension plan under your existing pension arrangement, after you have left employment, you may experience difficulties accessing pension benefits as the trustees of the previous pension plan may cease to exist.
- You have the option of transferring your retirement bond to a new retirement bond (with another provider) or to a new pension structure in the future, if at that particular time if makes more financial sense to do so thereby giving you more flexibility with your pension fund.
If you have left employment or are currently in the process of doing so it is imperative that you receive independent financial advice, in order to make the best decision which is specific to your needs.