Pension Advice Cheltenham
I need help with my pension…
Our goal is to mentor more people down the right financial path with clarity, focus and ease.
Pension Advice Cheltenham
I need help with my pension…
Our goal is to mentor more people down the right financial path with clarity, focus and ease.
How the process works
We’ll review your existing pension arrangements to:
- ensure they are organised in a way that reflects your retirement objectives.
- assess any underlying investments against your attitude to risk, investment motivation e.g. to invest sustainably, and your future growth rate requirements.
- assess your current funding or fund values against the annual and lifetime allowances (LTA).
- ensure they are cost-effective and have the potential for real capital growth.
- assess what, if any, restrictions exist on taking benefits and/or death benefits.
We tailor your solution to your circumstances
We tailor your solution to your circumstances
Personal tax planning is something we consider in all of our recommendations. For example, this might include planning for inheritance tax mitigation, using pensions and investments where tax treatment is favourable or maximising the use of tax reliefs. This will vary depending on individual circumstances but will always be a consideration in any advice we may give you.
Some interesting facts about pensions
55%
According to the Financial Capability Survey, 55% of working-age adults do not feel that they understand enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement.
£1,700
According to HMRC’s Private Pension stats for 2020-2021, the average value of individual contributions has increased from £1,100 in 2019-2020 to £1,700 in 2020-2021.
75%
According to the ONS, in 2021 employee workplace pension participation rates were just 75% in the private sector compared to 91% in the public sector.
Some interesting facts about pensions
55%
According to the Financial Capability Survey, 55% of working-age adults do not feel that they understand enough about pensions to make decisions about saving for retirement.
£1,700
According to HMRC’s Private Pension stats for 2020-2021, the average value of individual contributions has increased from £1,100 in 2019-2020 to £1,700 in 2020-2021.
75%
According to the ONS, in 2021 employee workplace pension participation rates were just 75% in the private sector compared to 91% in the public sector.
Book your free 30 minute consultation
Let us help you achieve your life goals by thinking ahead today...
Book your free 30 minute consultation
Let us help you achieve your life goals by thinking ahead today...
Get in touch
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you with your pension planning, please get in touch with us using the enquiry form below giving us an indication of your current situation and requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Defined Benefit – these are usually workplace pension schemes and the pension payable is based on your salary and the length of time you’ve worked for your employer. This will be either on a ‘final salary’ or ‘career average’ basis.
Defined Contribution – you accumulate a pension pot based on how much is paid in and how much it grows by, loosely defined as ‘what you see is what you get’.
By law, all employers have to offer a workplace pension scheme and must automatically enrol eligible employees into the scheme.
There are three main types of defined contribution private pension plans:
- Stakeholder pension – which are subject to a cap on their charges.
- Personal Pension Plan (PPP) – which are offered by most large providers.
- Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) – which might offer a wider range of investment options.
- There are no limits on how much you can pay into a pension each tax year, but there is a limit on the total amount that can be saved each tax year with tax relief applying and before a tax charge might apply.
- The standard limit is currently £60,000. However, if you are a higher earner, you may be subject to a lower limit known as the tapered annual allowance.
- There may be scope to Carry forward any annual allowance that you might not have used during the previous three tax years, provided that you were a member of a registered pension scheme during the relevant time period.
If you take a drawdown income payment or make a lump sum withdrawal from your pension, under current rules you will be subject to the money purchase annual allowance. This means that you can only receive tax relief on pension contributions of up to £10,000 per year and a tax charge will apply if you exceed this limit.
Combining pensions into a single ‘pot’ can help to simplify the ongoing administration and management of your retirement plans, however, it is not always the right thing to do. Each pension plan will have different charging structures, investment choices and retirement options. There may also be transfer penalties and you might lose valuable underlying guarantees in the event of a transfer. There are a lot of factors to consider before consolidating existing pension plans.