With changes in lifestyles and the continued advancements in healthcare, people are living longer and you could be in retirement for 30 years or more. With this in mind, it is vital that you start reviewing your retirement planning as early as possible. With the recent radical shake-up of pensions, there has never been a more important time to take professional advice about your retirement plans.
Most people underestimate how long they will have to rely on their retirement income and with pension rules now allowing unlimited access to pension funds, this has raised serious concerns that people may run out of money in retirement. When considering how to structure your retirement benefits, a vital factor to take into account is how long you might live. Of course, this isn’t something anyone can predict with any accuracy but this calculator will provide you with a very useful indication.
Our structured process is designed to provide you with an individual financial plan, carefully tailored to meet your specific needs. Where certain financial products are appropriate, we will research the market for those that best suit your requirements.
Pre-Retirement:
To enjoy a comfortable retirement (especially if you plan to retire early) you will need to have saved enough to make this a reality. Pensions still offer very attractive tax breaks on contributions and with careful planning, we can help you make the most of this opportunity to increase your pension funding and to reduce your tax liability.
With our pension review service, we can help you understand what income your existing pension arrangements might produce and assess whether they are on track to provide you with a comfortable retirement. We will check the charges on existing pension plans and assess your pension fund investments to see whether they are in line with your risk profile and are performing as expected. If changes need to be made, our investment process aims to maximise returns for a given level of risk so that you can be more confident of achieving your financial goals.
At Retirement:
The “freedom of pensions choice” means that it’s more important than ever to ensure that you make the right decisions about your pension fund, as these will affect you for the rest of your life. For example, would you prefer a guaranteed but non-flexible income, or a flexible non-guaranteed income – or perhaps a combination of the two? We will guide you through the options i.e. annuities, Drawdown and modern “third way” retirement income plans, to ensure that you have the most suitable and tax efficient arrangements.
It is important to appreciate that pension products are only one element of a successful retirement planning strategy; AGB takes a holistic approach and we will incorporate other savings and investments into our recommendations.
We also offer our comprehensive Lifestyle Financial Planning Service, where we use cash flow modelling to assist in planning for retirement more effectively.
If you would like to know more about the ways in which we can assist you please contact Peter David or Nick Kacigeras on 01483 508580.