Future Pension Planning

Although there are many advantages in pre-planning and providing for your future retirement income via pension arrangements, there are also several considerations and pitfalls.

Most pension plans are a means of investing payments, or contributions, to provide a future fund.  Whether paid by you personally or by an employer, these payments benefit from additional tax rebates, and the investment fund receives tax advantages.

The final pension fund will determine the pension benefits that are available when these are taken.  The value of this fund will depend upon factors such as the gross payments received, the investment performance and the charges deducted by the pension company.

Investment performance can vary considerably between differing providers and their funds.  The ongoing charges may also differ.

It is important therefore when considering setting up a new pension plan to:-

• compare the differing charges
• analyse the available investments
• compare the investment history of the appropriate funds
• compare the flexibility and suitability of each

As independent financial advisers we offer a service which takes these into consideration and uses professional systems to help with these comparisons.

Before seeking to make these comparisons however the following need to be taken into acocunt:-

• your objectives
• your "attitude to investment risk"
• the investment timeframe
• the amount of contributions being considered
• the need for future flexibility
• the amount of retirement income expected
• the appropriate form of pension benefit withdrawal

Where pension funds are already invested there will be extra considerations:-

• are the plan charges competitive?
• is the investment appropriate?
• has the fund performance been competitive?
• are there valuable additional options or benefits?
• can contributions be restarted?

It may be valuable to retain pension arrangements which are in the form of "final salary" benefits but to identify this it may be necessary to undertake an actuarial review.

Whatever your objectives and concerns we will discuss these with you and identify a plan suited to you now and in the future and once the plan is setup, we can arrange regular reviews on your behalf.