Planning for retirement is a complex business and there are many different options available. Pensions have come a long way in terms of flexibility and transparency in recent years and now offer a wide range of investment choices.
Pensions represent one of the most tax-efficient ways for most people to save for retirement. At its most basic, a pension is simply a savings scheme that offers very attractive tax benefits if you agree not to touch the proceeds until you are older. In other words, you hand over your money, that money is invested, its value (hopefully) grows and, at the end, you withdraw the proceeds and use it to pay for goods and services. In this case, however, you usually cannot touch the proceeds until you are at least 55 – and, although the rules have been relaxed to allow greater flexibility, there are still certain restrictions in terms of what you can do with the proceeds once you reach that age.
There are many types of personal and occupation pension schemes. At Mitchell Charlesworth Wealth Management, we have the experience and expertise to advise on all types of pension policies. Even when your policies have been put in place and are running to plan, someone needs to keep an eye on them in case market developments or abnormal events push them off course. Our financial planners can review existing policies to ensure that they suitable for your current circumstances and undertake this monitoring work for you. We can assess the performance of individual investments against their peers, ensure that your asset allocation does not become distorted as markets fluctuate, and help you consolidate gains as the deadlines for your ultimate goals move closer.
The areas we advise on include:
- Reviewing existing pension policies
- Recommending suitable new policies including stakeholder, personal and self-invested personal pensions (SIPPS)
- Property purchase within pension schemes
- Suitably drawing pension benefits including flexi-access drawdown, annuities, phased retirement
- Annual contribution limits and lifetime allowance issues
