Retirement Planning

Here are some financial planning tips:

£ Make sure you don't extend your mortgage beyond your proposed retirement age. You might have to keep working if you do.
£ If you have private pension plans or are members of company pension schemes, make sure that you know how your money is invested. Ask us to find out for you. If, after carrying out a full review of your objectives and circumstances we feel your existing arrangement/s do not offer the type of investment fund that suits you we can help at looking to find alternatives. Our Funds Management Service on the Nucleus Platform offers a huge range of funds for pension investment, and switching from fund to fund within the service is cost free in most cases.

£ Make sure that if you are saving up money or investing capital that you use your ISA allowance each year (currently £7,200 for the 2008/09 tax year). This shelters your accumulated investments from tax. Clients who have build up ISA funds whilst working can enjoy drawing on them very efficiently for income when they retire.

£ If you are saving or investing in shares, make sure that you take your profits (gains) from time to time. Each year you have a Capital Gains Tax free allowance which you can realise. This year it is £9,600. If you don't use it, you lose it.

£ Make sure you know whether you are Contracted In or Out of the State Second Pension. Ask us to obtain a State Pension Forecast for you. You may be one of those clients for whom we find that your National Insurance contribution record does not match what you think it should be. The time to sort out your N.I. record is now and not at retirement.

Please remember that past performance of funds is not a reliable indicator for future performance. Level and bases of, and reliefs from taxation are those currently applying but are subject to change and their value depends on the individual circumstances of the investor.