Advice Merseyside

fjh

Following on from a previous posting
Can anyone recommend a Firm in Merseyside that could give me advice regarding when to take final salary pension- it's technical advice I will not be buying a product from them
Recommendation would help thanks

atush

unbiased.co.uk is where to find an IFA, but I am not sure they would be where to go for such advice as they don't deal in them.

I have heard others here, post their stories and receive not advice, but opinions on when to take such a pension.

It is a fine balance between the actuarial reduction based on years early, plus the need for a Lump sum, plus the person's reason for needing it early and their current financial/work status.

Generally speaking, unless you really NEED to take a FS pension early, it isn't thought wise to do so (unless you fit a specific profile)

Cygnus_Alpha

fjh wrote: »

Following on from a previous posting
Can anyone recommend a Firm in Merseyside that could give me advice regarding when to take final salary pension- it's technical advice I will not be buying a product from them
Recommendation would help thanks

You could look for a firm of consulting actuaries who specialise in final salary pensions. But worth getting a quote first - like other professionals they will charge by the hour.

redbuzzard

It is potentially more than an actuarial decision, even if you don't "need" the money. Allowing that inflation and investment returns are actuarial factors, there's also tax.

For example - my instinct was to leave my best DB pension and an as yet uncrystallized SIPP until I am 65 in 5 years time, so as to maximise my ultimate annual retirement income.

However that might push me into higher rate tax when the SIPP income is added (I planned to use flexible drawdown).

So it might (I don't know what my revalued pension will be, or what the tax allowances and bands will be) make sense to take more income earlier.

Crystallizing the SIPP and doing (capped) drawdown seems the obvious first step, and that is at least a flexible decision. But it might also be worth taking the DB pension early even though there is a 6% deduction from the starting level for every year brought forward. That of course is a bridge-burning decision.

I'm doing a monster spreadsheet to consider various scenarios. The spreadsheet is fairly complicated, but the hard bit is the assumptions - nobody can tell me what inflation, investment growth rates, and income tax rates and bands will be.

I can't think of another way to approach it than to calculate out some reasonably feasible scenarios and sensitivities and make a judgement. It just isn't possible to "calculate" the answer as far as I can see, even if I knew how long I will live. Is it?

kidmugsy

redbuzzard wrote: »

I'm doing a monster spreadsheet to consider various scenarios. The spreadsheet is fairly complicated, but the hard bit is the assumptions - nobody can tell me what inflation, investment growth rates, and income tax rates and bands will be.

Yep, spreadsheets are a help with everything except the vital issues.

For what it's worth, our best financial decision might prove to have been my drawing max tax free lump sum from a final salary pension so that we could afford to let my wife defer her State Pension to buy extra pension.

redbuzzard

kidmugsy wrote: »

Yep, spreadsheets are a help with everything except the vital issues.

Ha ha. Yes, I'm a 'number' person and I love a good spreadsheet - in my last job I was always being asked by people who should have known better for "the answer".

They don't like it when you say "it depends where you start from..."