Pensions, annuities & retirement planning

I'd welcome some advice if I may. I have an ILG ladder with Bell. It is all uncrystallized at present. To tie me over until SP kicks in, I'd like withdraw an annual amount of cash - for the sake of argument, let's say 30K - to pay for day to day expenditure. My thinking is to drawdown/crystallize 72K, use the 25% tax free…

I have 3 pensions 1 with Aegon with £10k (ex employer pension) in 1 with Prudential with £10k in (personal pension) , Another with Nest £33k and adding around £950 to this each month via my salary (total employers an employees contribution). Im 53 and am starting to think about what I should do about a lump sum before Im…

Maybe over thinking this but can’t get my head around it… About to start taking pension by UFPLS. I have a several years of potential withdrawals in MMF purchased last year, remainder in multi asset fund. Should I take the withdrawal: By selling units from MMF, then sell units of the multi asset fund to top up the MMF for…

I would like to set up an investment for each of my grandchildren. I was thinking of investing £1,000 into the S&P 500 for 30 yrs. Can anyone advise the best way to go about this?

Hi. I have 5 x PAYE part time jobs. My latest one is offering a pension with salary sacrifice. Min 4%, Max 100% company contribution 7%. I want to do 100% of this job into the said pension. I earn enough off the other 4 jobs, I'll earn about 2-3k annually from this one. The conditions say the following. Salary exchange…

Hi there I was thinking of using WTW Lifesight for drawdown as the charges are minimal, but the administration is appalling and there is no flexibility to mix and match FAD with UFPLS. So I'm thinking about Vanguard as their fund charges are about as low as you can get and I already pay the platform fee for my ISAs. Would…

Talking to AI suggested that I can avoid the 1.8% fee for a lump sum deposit into nest. It suggests I can open for example, a vanguard SIPP , deposit here, wait for the tax relief to be added, then transfer to nest from there. Then I can close the SIPP, therefore avoiding a 1.8% Charge. Has anyone done this before?

I am seeking advice. I recently, well 2 months ago have begun semi-retirement. However I m still struggle to spend more money after being really frugal post a divorce. I am 60 and realais I have mostly enough as long as I don’t go too overboard. However I still don’t treat myself to small things - coffees, lunches out and…

Hi everyone I am trying to retire from a former workplace pension scheme but am having serious issues with the pensions administrator. I made a complaint a couple of months ago and in the absence of a response after eight weeks and escalation involving the Ombudsman and the Pensions Regulator, I have only received a…

I was under the impression that I have to wait for cash from any sales to settle before I can use that cash to buy a new investment. However I am making some movements around this week, and I noticed that II seems to be using "pending" cash to pay for my purchases. Have I misunderstood how this works? Maybe it will let me…

So DW and I are in the lucky position that about 67% of our retirement income will come from Govt/LGPS DB pension and state pension so fully index linked. However this means we are majorly exposed to UK sovereign risk. If the UK ends up doing a Greece and being forced to slash pensions we are very exposed. To hedge some of…

Hello, I am considering purchasing an impaired annuity with my £300k pension pot at age 55 due to history of stroke 10 years ago. So far I have got quotes from the moneyhelper website and have been looking at the sharingpension website. Please can I ask for advice about best next steps to get the best deal to maximise my…

On 6th April 28 minimum pension age increases to 57. My DOB is Oct 71. If I start accessing a DC pension from Oct 26 (age 55) can I continue? Or on 6th April 28 (age 56) will there be limits on how I can access my pension? What are the guidelines? I'm thinking I would be able to access crystallised funds in a drawdown…

I'm thinking of selling my investment in VAGS Global Bond fund and creating a bond ladder with the same amount of investment. Have other posters here successfully used the tool at this site to determine which ones to buy: https://lategenxer.streamlit.app/Gilt_Ladder It seems like I put in my parameters and then it tells me…

I retired from my LA on 30 June 2026. I had an AVC (Prudential)) and opted to take the amount as a tax free lump sum. As of yet I have not received anything and I am losing out on interest as I had planned to invest the money. Does anyone know how long the process takes? Who do I contact? Will they compensate me? Should I…

Inside the (deliberately) obscure govt 'shadow' finances the 'SCAPE' rate is a construct based on an estimate of the long term growth rate of the real economy. The govt assumes that money notionally set aside for public sector pensions will grow at this rate. Recently the OBR decided that this rate rather than being an…

Sidestepping the minimum wage constraint, if someone earning the personal allowance as an annual salary all of which is paid into their private pension in the following 2 ways, they would have different tax treatments: Salary sacrifice - gross £12,570 into pension and considered inclusive of tax relief Relief at source -…

I'm self-employed and get a relatively small pension from the Local Government scheme. I've just been through the process of completing my tax return online with HMRC and during the process, as usual, I could see that they already knew the amount of my pension. The difference is that this time the end result was a tax…

Hello all I am 71 and just retiring at last . I have DB pensions. I am about to claim a deferred state pension. YES I know possibly not a good decision. So my choices are with state pension amount higher or lower amount equates to approx 600 per annum lower and 13500 lump sum I do not need the money being in a reasonably…

My original strategy had been to start drawing my DB pension early next year alongside a 9 year IL Gilt ladder to State Pension age. Having recently received an updated DB forecast the Early Retirement factors had worsened slightly so I took another look at the figures using Guiide. The figures on the left are the original…