Advice on buying pension annuity please.

Nearly_Old

Anjolale wrote: »

Hi I am new to the forum and hoping I can obtain a little advice.

We have finally reached our official retirement year and are finding it all very mind boggling.

I'm almost at the end of the process and its taken just over 3 months but it has been worth it. I had a local authority pension from when I first started work plus 2 pension funds built up with my other employers - I didn't change jobs that often! My wife will be retiring this September and she also has a local authority pension plus we both have state old age pensions.

We used an IFA who firstly commented on our draft retirement budget and provided a comprehensive analysis of our potential pension income. I had always thought that I would use drawdown but at a second meeting the IFA gave us another comprehensive report on the drawdown and annuity options and after more discussion I have gone down the annuity route. The IFA used the Open Market Option to get quotes using the total of the 2 funds and then negotiated with a couple of the providers to get us what IMO is a good deal given the current state of the economy.

I felt as if you could be careful all your life saving for your pension but then you have to make a decision that, whichever way you chose, is a gamble in the sense that circumstances may change in the future. I went with the annuity so we could just get on with our lives without worrying about investment performance.

As others have said do see an IFA, you can contact a number of IFAs before choosing one that you are comfortable with.

Anjolale

Thankyou so much nearly old it is nice to hear from someone in a similar position to ourselves. My first payment of OAP is due in the bank early next month my husband doesn't claim his until September.:j

You are right about it all being a gamble, you do feel as if you may as well just toss a coin, it is all so frustrating and in some respects I wish we had just put it all into ISA's but that is not an option so we must just get on with it.

grzegorzstoch

Hello, I am new on forum and would like to explain my situation and get some advise from you please. I was born on 1950 and I am available to get Pension Credit. Two years ago I have had an accident at my work place and since this time I got Jobseekers Allowance, Housing and Council Tax Benefit and Industry Accident Allowance. In result of this accident I will receive £52000 of compensation.
I will be available to get Pension on January 2015 but as an Immigrant I haven't collect enough years of NI contribution.
I would like to ask you what to do to do not lose any benefits and do most of this compensation please ?
I will be very appreciate for any advices please.:)

Nearly_Old

Anjolale wrote: »

You are right about it all being a gamble, you do feel as if you may as well just toss a coin, it is all so frustrating and in some respects I wish we had just put it all into ISA's but that is not an option so we must just get on with it.

If you can I'd recommend going through the process carefully and don't be afraid to pause at times and give full consideration to each decision. Perhaps the real benefit to us of using an IFA was that he really made us consider exactly what we wanted to do in retirement and then adviced on ways of funding it. Fortunately we had enough pension / other savings so the IFA's advice was then on how to manage the money. Following the advice I managed to retire last October age 62 and my wife will be 61 when she retires in September. Her state pension starts in January 2013 whilst I have to wait until April 2014. The IFA showed how we could manage the "gap" and still do what we had planned.

Good luck and enjoy your retirement

atush

grzegorzstoch wrote: »

Hello, I am new on forum and would like to explain my situation and get some advise from you please. I was born on 1950 and I am available to get Pension Credit. Two years ago I have had an accident at my work place and since this time I got Jobseekers Allowance, Housing and Council Tax Benefit and Industry Accident Allowance. In result of this accident I will receive £52000 of compensation.
I will be available to get Pension on January 2015 but as an Immigrant I haven't collect enough years of NI contribution.
I would like to ask you what to do to do not lose any benefits and do most of this compensation please ?
I will be very appreciate for any advices please.:)

I would post your own thread, possibly on the Benefits forum instead. But you will have been getting added years of NI onctribs during the period you were getting benefits incl JSA etc. So ask for a pension forcast. If your original country is in the EU, you can add the years from there as well?

Anjolale

Hi grzegorzstoch as atush has said you may be better re posting your question on the benefits part of the forum. If you go back to the main menu and scroll down the headings on the left hand column until you come to Benefits and tax credits and start a new thread there. Or failing that your local Citizens Advice Bureau will be able to give you some guidance on how the compensation payment will affect your pension credit.