Pension Planning

There are some brilliant tax incentives available for defined contribution pensions. If you have a workplace pension, your employer will also pay into it through employer matching.

Beyond that, it might also help to set up another pension to boost your plans.

• When you invest into a pension, you automatically receive an extra 20% in your pot through tax relief. If you’re a higher or additional rate taxpayer and claim for it, you can get tax relief of 40% or 45% (Scottish tax payers receive tax relief on anything up to 20%, anything above this they need to claim for).
• You can usually gain tax relief on the amount you earn each tax year, however this is capped by the annual pension allowance of £60,000.
• If you’ve not made full use of your last three annual pension allowances you can usually carry them forward and make the most of tax relief.
• When it’s inside a pension wrapper, there’s no tax to pay on any growth you achieve.
• You can’t normally access your pension until you’re 55 (or 57 from 2028).

• 25% of the pot is tax-free to withdraw (capped at £268,275) over your lifetime. You pay tax on the rest in line with income tax bands.
• No restrictions on how you use your pension when you withdraw from it.
• When you retire you could keep your pension invested, using it to draw an income or take lump sums. This gives your pension the chance to continue to grow further, although your capital is at risk.
• If you want more security, you could use your pension to arrange a guaranteed income through an annuity.

We’re here to offer as much or as little support as you need.

For example, we could help you to set up a new pension to invest your money in, which you can manage yourself. We'll make recommendations based on our panel of investment options and present options suited to your personal circumstances.

If you’re looking for more help and are happy to pay an ongoing charge, we offer a range of ongoing service options that can help you prepare for retirement and even help you keep on top of your plans.

Where you require advice on existing investments/pensions the minimum value required, including the investments/pensions under review, is £50,000.

The great thing about our Pension Review Service is we will do all the hard work for you.

We will communicate with your defined contribution pension providers to obtain detailed information on each scheme. This allows our in-house experts to analyse the strength of your plans.

Depending on your situation, this research might take a few months to complete – that’s so we can get a really accurate picture for you.

But at the end, we'll do our best so that you can be in a position to make informed decisions about your future.