Pensions, annuities & retirement planning

I'm trying to help someone, whose DC pension fund is around £900k, which gives a potential crystallisation lump-sum of £225k, to understand the consequences of fund growth. Since the Lump-Sum Allowance is £268,275, which is the lump sum available from a fund size of £1,073,100, it seems that growth of only about 19.25%…

Sadly my husband died while in active service at a university this summer. When he died he had £72k in his investment builder. However, I have only been paid £27k of this as a 'discretionary lump sum'. We honestly both thought that when we were saving in the investment builder, we were building a fund that was ours to use…

I hope someone can help/advise. I joined a Local Pension Scheme on 1st January 2025, working in a school (non-teaching role) receiving my first payslip on 17.1.25. There is a rule that you must be part of the scheme for a minimum of two years before you can access and draw a pension. I would like to stop working at the end…

Hello everyone and apologies in advance for my limited knowledge of this field. I have taken voluntary redundancy and the pot was around £89000. I’m still waiting for my P45. I know the 1st £30 000 is tax free, and you can only invest up to £60 000, or earnings from employment, whatever is lower ( without incurring tax in…

My DC pension pot is with WTW Lifesight. I've around £500K in there. I'm at the stage in life where I'm looking into moving into drawdown. I have protection for my tax free lump sum of 26.7% (from my previous employers scheme that was transferred in). I've seen very many bad reviews of Lifesight on the TrustAdvisor site -…

In brief, "encouraged" to consolidate my smaller pensions into a SJP pension in early 2020. All good until my advisor there moved on, I was assigned someone else and since then a number of issues have left a bad taste in my mouth. I have been contributing a small amount each month to my SJP pension plan. In reading other…

I am 49 this year and hoping that wife and I will retire next year once we are both 50 When we retire we would have the following Savings in mixture of shares/ cash / isa - £250,000 we will use some of this till we get to 55(£40k a year) DC Pension Pots totalling- £550,000 which we would take 25% Lump Sum then drawn down…

I wanted to check the 4.8% increase in State Pension had been correctly applied. So I took one of the payments from last year, increased it by 4.8% and compared it with a payment made this year. The payment I received was about £10 less than what I had calculated. I get paid every 13 weeks, and so I had to pick payments…

Hi It has been just over 7 years since I posted on here with my plan to retire at 50. A lot has happened since then, the most dramatic was me having a cardiac arrest at the age of 39 in 2020 (not sure what caused it but I was with people that knew cpr and was incredibly lucky to survive), we have moved house to one worth…

Retirement planning.... its something I've given a fair bit of thought too lately. I've spent off and on the last 20 years contracting of some sorts.. which means no company pensions. But I do feel for my age I'm in a pretty good position in life. Happily married with 3 kids, ages 12, 17 and 18. The eldest has just joined…

Just asking the question probably gives a hint to my lack of knowledge on investments etc. Due to moving abroad and my bank not allowing me to have a UK bank account, my financial advisor cannot continue to work for me. So the simple question is can I manage my own SIPP? As above I have very limited investment knowledge…

I retired 5 years ago and as I am not yet state pension age have been living off Pension Drawdown (as has my husband, both with separate pensions). Every year when the new tax allowance comes in my husband draws out the maximum within his tax allowance and a couple of months later I do the same. This means that each year…

If you had a FP policy now Aviva perhaps you will read this. Bonuses have not been added to my policy. I questioned this on a telephone call and was told bonuses were not applicable to my policy. I checked back and FP used to pay them annually. I then got a letter in the post in June from Aviva saying sorry, you were given…

Hi everyone, I’m 62 years old, still employed full‑time, but rising costs are really stretching my budget, so I’m considering starting to take money from my pension. My situation: Still working, receiving regular salary Divorced; paying maintenance for my 16‑year‑old son Concerned about how drawdown will affect my tax…

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforming-inheritance-tax-unused-pension-funds-and-death-benefits/inheritance-tax-on-unused-pension-funds-and-death-benefits#general-description-of-the-measure Key point of departure from original announcement, the liabilty has shifted from the pension scheme administrators across…

I am 54, looking to retire early next year when I am 55. I currently work part time and pay 5% into workplace pension, employer adds 3%. This pot has around £16k. I have two DB pensions, one which I plan to start taking next year which will be approx £6k per year. I will top this up with savings for day to day living,…

I thought I was reasonably switched on with this stuff but my tax codes and predicted income on the HMRC site are a bit all over the place. Do I just keep an eye and hope it will sort itself out or should I be more proactive? Pension 1: Tax code 578T - my NHS pension made up of two elements, a smaller 1995 pension which…

Fixed Term Annuities - I don't need advice, I am looking for an execution only service. I have been using Money Helper calculator to get some figures, I suspect these might be reasonably accurate, but i need to go to individual providers to get accurate quotes (where they deal direct with individuals), or go through a…

I have been claiming Marriage Allowance for the last two years. My wife is now receiving her State Pension and I assumed that as she is about to reach the Personal Allowance threshold, then the allowance would cease and that I would receive a revised Tax Code. I understand that this will result in me paying more tax.…

there's a few pension video inc Ai junk or is it.I've not watch any of them. I get a state pension as my wife do. I get a small pension on top but not much. need we worry or is it just scaremongering.I don't see anything in the news or papers. HMRC Pension Shock: New 2027 Tax Projections Reveal Bad News For UK Pensioners