55 next April - can I access my pension?

cavyslave

Hi. I will be 55 next April and understand that I will be able to access my private pension? How do I go about it please, do I contact my provider or do they contact me to let me know my options and when should I do this? If I can access it is is paid on my 55th Birthday and is that into a nominated bank or will they send the payment to me?
Sorry for so many questions!

RichandJ

cavyslave wrote: »

Hi. I will be 55 next April and understand that I will be able to access my private pension? How do I go about it please, do I contact my provider or do they contact me to let me know my options and when should I do this? If I can access it is is paid on my 55th Birthday and is that into a nominated bank or will they send the payment to me?
Sorry for so many questions!

Depends.

Is it a DC or DB pension ?

No, no one will contact you at 55. It's not a normal retirement age, just happens to be the earliest u can legally access a pension.

Caveat for pedants - in good health.

bigadaj

Someone may try and contact you at 55 but it will probably be a scam.

If you post more details about what pension this is, where it is from, employer etc then you might get more info. You say private pension,if it is a personal pension then you may well be able to access it, whether this is the right thing to do is very much a different question.

cavyslave

Well, it was a pension I took out in 1980 with my then employer. When I left the job in 1996 I could no longer afford to keep up the payments, so I phoned Standard Life and they said they could make it something known as a "Free Paid Up Policy" whatever that was, and that although I wasn't paying in any more money the money I had already accrued would be left in a pot until I reached retirement age. Standard Life recently wrote to me to say I had £27,000 in the pot, and I was rather hoping to cash it in next April (minus the tax of course) Does that help?

dunstonh

Standard Life recently wrote to me to say I had £27,000 in the pot, and I was rather hoping to cash it in next April (minus the tax of course) Does that help?

Being a pre 1988 plan, it could have valuable guarantees. You should investigate if it does before pinching your retirement fund to pay for current lifestyle during working life.

cavyslave

Sorry Dunstonh, but what does that actually mean - valuable guarantees? I took the policy out on 1st March 1980. Thank you.

dunstonh

Policies from the 80s often contained guarantees on income amount. Such as a guaranteed annuity rate. Or a guaranteed minimum fund value. The real value of these plans is often not in the fund value but the guarantee they provide.

We dont know what your plan offers. We dont even know what type of pension it (personal pensions didnt exist until 1988. Retirement annuity contracts (pre 88) were for self employed. So, yours is probably an occupational pension. Although you say it is with Standard Life. However, that is unusual for a pre 88 pension. So, it could have been a later transfer of the works scheme into a section 32 buy out bond or it could be a hybrid scheme (if it is then there are other guarantees that could apply such as 100% tax free lump sum at a given age).

Lots of info to consider but not much for us to go on.

cavyslave

Oh goodness, that's a lot to go on! Thank you for your advice, and perhaps I will give Standard Life a call on Monday to clarify.

cavyslave

I just had a look, it's a Personal Pension Plan - Standard Life Managed Pension Fund. I was looking at the launch date on the policy which was 1st March 1980 - sorry

xylophone

http://www.standardlife.co.uk/c1/news-and-blog/moneyplus/pension-freedoms-open-up-a-world-of-choice/

Read the policy document.
Contact Standard Life to discuss your options?

In general terms, you would be able to take 25% tax free with the balance taxed as income in the year you take it.

cavyslave

Thank you!