Pension Planning

Ultimately all client's financial goals narrow down as they grow older, and planning a retirement income becomes the driver of their financial planning.

Pensions at Work- If you are employed it is important to make the most of any opportunities offered to you for pensions saving by your employer. The first thing we look at for a client is their scheme at work. What does it provide? Final Salary Pensions? Money Purchase Pensions? If Money Purchase what is the choice of fund? Does the scheme come with Death in Service cover? What are the early retirement provisions? Does the scheme allow extra benefits to be purchased and so on. We build round this provision with private investments. Our initial Fact Find will ask you whether you have a pension scheme at work.

Private pensions- The simplest form of these is the Stakeholder pension-offering controlled cost and limited investment choice. The plan with the most facilities is the Self Invested Personal Pension Plan (SIPP). One of our directors has been advising on these self invested plans since their type began in the UK 30 years ago-yes Graham is that old. These plans are at their most exciting when they are used to purchase property for use in the client's business-though they have other uses too. We can widen the investment choice available to clients with Private Pensions using the pensions wrapper on the Nucleus Investment platform.

Options at retirement- We enjoy helping clients to make the most of the funds they have accrued. This work involves examining the options available to each client individually and very carefully for them as they approach retirement. Clients may purchase an annuity at retirement from their private pension fund or they may draw on their accumulated fund for an income (Unsecured Pension). Annuities come in a variety of types. We set these annuity types out for the client, in tabular form with the figures applying to their own fund, and we help the client (and often the client's spouse too) choose which type suits them best. Then we buy it on the annuity market at the best rate. So our job, as usual is to find and secure the most suitable product for the client, at the best price. The client's state of health needs to be taken into account when we are buying an annuity-we can often improve income dramatically for clients with quite common medical conditions-this is a "not many people know that" situation. Many people fail to secure the biggest income they can set up from their pension fund because they don't know how annuity purchase works. We do.

Instead of buying an annuity with your private pension fund you can leave it invested and draw from it each month. This option involves your accepting an investment risk, and our guiding you on allocating your pension fund to suitable asset classes. We have been setting up and running these for clients since they began in 1995. These days using the Nucleus Platform allows us to offer clients a very agile and low cost Unsecured Pension service. Regular reviews with the client in Unsecured income are vital.