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Pensions
Securing future income
Planning Your Retirement
Whether you are beginning your career or approaching retirement, it is important that you take the time to plan for your future. At Cragside Financial Solutions, we can assist you in that journey and can help you to make the key decisions that will shape your income for the rest of your life.
The value of pensions and investments and the income they produce can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.
Tax treatment varies according to individual circumstances and is subject to change
Taxation advice, Estate planning & Divorce Settlements are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Retirement Planning
- To have a comfortable and secure retirement, you need to build the financial cushion that will fund it all
- Retirement planning should include determining time horizons, estimating expenses, calculating after-tax returns, assessing risk tolerance and doing estate planning
- Start planning for retirement as soon as you can to take advantage of the power of compounding
- Younger investors can take more risk with their investments, while investors closer to retirement should be more conservative
- Retirement plans evolve through the years, which means portfolios should be rebalanced and estate plans updated as needed
Approaching Retirement
- Approaching two years before you want to stop working is a good time to start thinking about your retirement options and the choices you will need to make
- Consider getting financial advice because these are decisions that can shape your income for the rest of your life
Annuities
- An annuity is a type of retirement income product that you buy with some or all of your pension pot
- It pays a regular retirement income either for life ("Lifetime") or for a set period of time ("Fixed-term")
- How much retirement income you will get from an annuity and for how long will depend on several key factors; such as your age, health, lifestyle, annuity type and purchased rates
- It is important to get help and advice before committing to an annuity because once you buy one, you can’t change your mind
Income Drawdown
- Pension or "Income" drawdowns are a way of using your pension to provide regular retirement income
- You can normally choose to take up to 25% of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum
- The rest of the pension fund remains invested within a Flexible Income Product that allows you to take an income at times to suit you
Pensions and Divorce
- What happens depends on where you are in the UK. Options include:
- Pension sharing – you get a percentage share of your ex-partner’s pensions
- Pension offsetting – the value of any pension is offset against other assets such as the family home
- Pension Attachment & Earmarking – an agreed proportion of the pension benefits are paid directly to an ex-spouse; you can’t get pension payments before your ex-partner has started taking their pension
- Individual Agreement – it’s not compulsory to share pensions in a divorce. As a couple you can come to an informal agreement but it will need to be legally documented
