Pension

How to save for a pension if you work for yourself. For ministers to say workplace pensions have been an “extraordinary success” is perfectly valid, but those excluded from the government’s flagship scheme may not share that sentiment.  The official statistics corroborate those claims, showing that more than 10 million employees over the age of

Should you transfer or consolidate funds? Around £19.4 billion has not been claimed in 1.6 million lost or forgotten pension pots, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). On average, this equates to about £13,000 per pension pot.  The ABI claims providers are attempting to reunite people with their lost pension plans by sending

Pensions for company directors Saving for retirement through your limited company. Being the director of a limited company gives you independence. It gives you the freedom to choose how and when you work, and to determine the direction of your business as you build it over time.  But it also means there’s no one to

The dangers posed by pension scams Getting to grips with the warning signs. Cold calls, time-limited offers and claims of guaranteed returns are among the tactics being used to tempt pension savers into risking their retirement income. Fraudsters have been deploying these tactics, and tweaking them to get around legislation along the way, ever since

Pensions and passing on wealth An increasingly effective estate planning strategy. When pension freedoms were introduced back in April 2015, new inheritance tax planning rules slipped under the radar for some. While over-55s were presented with much more choice when it comes to flexibly accessing their pension pots, passing retirement savings on became less punitive.

Enhanced annuities Could you qualify for extra income in retirement? Your height and weight, your blood pressure levels and whether or not you smoke might not seem like information you’d want to give your pension provider. In some cases, however, these details could make a significant positive difference to your income in retirement, by making

Auto-enrolment: the final increase? Another minimum contributions rise is upon us. When auto-enrolment was first introduced back in October 2012, nobody could have envisaged it being a policy as widely admired as it is today. Before that, workplace pensions had fallen out of favour, being regarded as a burden by employers, and had come to

Pension options for over-55s What alternatives do you have at retirement? Raiding your pension before retirement remains a popular option, with more than 1.3 million savers taking flexible payments from their pensions in the three years since 2015. While the premise of withdrawing 25% of your pension pot tax-free is nothing new, the options you

Pensions for business owners How to save for retirement while running a business. When you’re juggling the many day-to-day responsibilities of running a business, planning for your retirement might well slip down your list of priorities. Recent data from the Office for National Statistics shows that self-employed individuals contributed £4,490 on average to personal pensions

Flexible pensions: SIPPs and SSAS A guide to two options for flexible pension saving. As a self-employed business owner or sole trader, it can be hard to make a habit of pension saving. Without the convenience of being auto-enrolled in a workplace pension scheme, you don’t have employer contributions and you’ll need to decide for