Topic: Pensions

Pension options

Planning your financial future, and how to get there

One thing retirement is not, is an age. Not any more anyway. Gone are the days of being told to stop working one day and pick up your State Pension the next. Today you have new pension freedoms to decide when and how you retire.

Passing on pension benefits

Providing for your loved ones after your death

If you’ve spent a lifetime saving for retirement, you’d probably like any remaining money to go to a loved one after your death. But whether pension benefits are payable to a beneficiary, and how they’ll receive them, is dependent on the type of pension you’ve chosen and how you’ve accessed it in your retirement.

Gender pension gap

What you can do to reduce a future financial shortfall

A lot has been made of the gender pay gap, but what’s not so well known is how this can affect women in retirement. Unsurprisingly, women don’t fare as well as men when it comes to the savings they’ve built up for a healthy and economically stable retirement.

More over-55s forced to dip into pension pots

Understanding the different ways you can use your pension money

The UK has seen a rise in the number of people accessing their pension pots or enquiring about doing so. People accessing their pension as a flexible income has increased by 56%[1] according to research since the first lockdown last year. The increase is due to people withdrawing after holding off when stock markets were volatile.

Pensions on divorce

Navigating through what may be uncertain territory during this emotional time

If you’re going through a divorce, dividing up any pensions you have will usually be one of the largest financial decisions you need to make. Agreeing financial arrangements in your divorce can seem daunting; there are so many misconceptions and myths as to what each party is entitled to that it gets confusing. The rules surrounding dissolution of a registered civil partnership are the same as those for divorce. In this guide, we use the term ‘divorce’ to mean the end of a registered civil partnership as well as the end of a marriage.

State Pension age rises

How could the change impact on your retirement plans?

For the first time in over a decade, the point at which people can claim a State Pension (the ‘State Pension Age’) is simple. If you have reached your 66th birthday, you can claim it. Otherwise you cannot.

Over-50s with no pension provision

Consequences of not saving enough for retirement in our twilight years

Planning ahead for retirement will help ensure you’re on track to achieve the financial future you want. However, millions of retirees may face the prospect of living in poverty during their twilight years and having to rely only on the State Pension as a result of failing to plan ahead for their retirement, according to new research[1].

Moving closer to retirement

Delay taking your pension if you can

For those people moving closer to retirement who may have been impacted by the recent market volatility, an option to consider is deferring your private pension. If you’re in a defined contribution scheme, delaying when you claim means that you leave your pension pot invested for longer, so you could secure a bigger pension pot when you do eventually come to retire.

Deferring also means that you can continue to save as much as £40,000 in the current tax year into a pension and earn tax relief under current rules. There is also the opportunity to defer your State Pension for extra income.

Choosing to defer your State Pension means that once you do start claiming it, you’ll receive more than you otherwise would have. It can also help you manage your tax liability if you don’t want to be pushed into a higher income bracket.

The most important thing to do in the face of what is an unexpected and uncertain period for investors is not panic. We have seen extremely volatile stock markets recently, and it is impossible to say when markets will recover.

5 reasons to delay taking your pension

1. Your pension has longer to grow

2. You can maximise your investment potential before moving to safer assets

3. Your employer will keep topping up your pension

4. You’ll continue to receive tax relief on pension contributions until age 75

5. Delaying your State Pension can boost your payments

How can we help?

For more information, please contact S4 Financial on 01276 34932 or email [email protected] – we look forward to hearing from you.