Pension encashment

kidmugsy

rubble2 wrote: »

I did check with the DB pension provider and they have confirmed that the benefits would increase if the pension is not taken at SRA.

It would be worth comparing the benefits of deferring your State Pension rather than your DB pension. Or, indeed, consider deferring neither and making pension contributions to avoid higher rate tax, if needs be. If you do want to make pension contributions of more than £4k p.a. it's vital that you don't draw down any income from your money purchase pension beyond the 25% tax free lump sum.

GunJack

Silvertabby wrote: »

Based on these figures, OP should be able to work how how long it would take him to break even.

A !!!!in long time

rubble2

Have made an appointment with Pensionwise for next month so will see what they advise my options to be.

Silvertabby

Have made an appointment with Pensionwise for next month so will see what they advise my options to be.

Pensionwise give information, not advice.

If you want actual advice you'll have to pay for the services of an IFA.

dunstonh

rubble2 wrote: »

Have made an appointment with Pensionwise for next month so will see what they advise my options to be.

They will not advise you. They will inform you of options but will not state which are best for you.

They will also only present info on a generic basis and not anything influenced by market conditions/pricing. For example, generically, there are a number of options that could fit a scenario. However, commercially, the pricing may be poor and that makes them unsuitable. Equally, the other way around is that the generically, an option may not seem viable but commercially it is.

Pensionwise is useful if you understand the limitations and that they wont tell you what you should do or who with. However, many people seem to have higher expectations of pensionwise and end up thinking it was a waste of time.

jamesd

rubble2 wrote: »

Have made an appointment with Pensionwise for next month so will see what they advise my options to be.

Be careful with them, they may not even bother to mention the good value for money state pension deferral option and just might position annuity purchase as the only way to get a guaranteed income for life.

Annuities would normally pay about half the income for the money as deferral, but if lifestyle or health issues reduce life expectancy an annuity can sometimes do better.

Have a look at this and the rest of the topic for an introduction to income drawdown that can give you some idea of how much income you can take from drawdown.

rubble2

Ok, so I will treat the Pension Wise appointment as an information gathering exercise.

How do I find and select a local IFA? I assume that there is some form of regulatory body with which they would be registered which sets out what their qualifications are and what are their particular areas of expertise.

A quick Google came up with a website called 'Vouchedfor.co.uk' which lists some local contacts but it looks suspiciously like a Trusted Trader - Guild of Master Builder outfit where you pay a subscription to join without any checks on the quality of the service provided.(in fact closer examination shows a statement on the website saying that 'Adviser qualifications are self certified and have not been verified by VouchedFor'
Where do I find a reliable trustworthy source of independent advice please?

xylophone

https://directory.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en

might be a start.

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/financial-adviser/ifa-qualifications

dunstonh

I assume that there is some form of regulatory body with which they would be registered which sets out what their qualifications are and what are their particular areas of expertise.

No. Not quite. To be an IFA or FA you have to be qualified to a certain standard. So, by definition, you have the qualifications or you are not an FA/IFA. You cannot be authorised without the qualifications. An adviser can choose to take higher qualifications beyond that. Some of these can add value to a particular area. Some will not. i.e. Qualifications J05 or AF3 add value in retirement income options. Whereas a mortgage qualification would not.

A quick Google came up with a website called 'Vouchedfor.co.uk' which lists some local contacts but it looks suspiciously like a Trusted Trader - Guild of Master Builder outfit where you pay a subscription to join without any checks on the quality of the service provided.(in fact closer examination shows a statement on the website saying that 'Adviser qualifications are self certified and have not been verified by VouchedFor'

Trustpilot, vouchedfor, unbiased etc are all lead generation paid-to-be-on-there sites. unbiased used to the main one but its gone commerical. You have to pay to be on there now and they charge on a lead generation basis. The cost of being on vouchedfor is significant. They take a great chunk of the IFA fee for any business that comes from someone use that. So, the adviser fee has to be higher to compensate for that.

Most IFA firms are small local firms that do not advertise much at all (if any). They don't have to pay to be on sites as they naturally get the business through family or friends of existing clients, walk-ins or the free listings.

Where do I find a reliable trustworthy source of independent advice please?

IFAs are the most reliable distribution. So, by default, you would expect trustworthy and reliable advice. The main issue with IFAs is not the quality of the advice but the cost. That is where you will see a wide variation.

There is no perfect listing that fits all criteria. Possibly the best one is
http://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/

This has a "refine search" on the right hand side and clicking retirement planning specialist will only show FAs or IFAs that have qualification AF3 or JO5 or the new R08 (like all qualifications, you get multiple versions over the years and different examination boards). Those advisers are also committed to an additional 10 hours of CPD on top of the normal amount which has to be focused on retirement. This is sample checked by the society.

Do not select from the "select specialism" menu below that. This is a flawed filter. The adviser profile allows 6 areas that they can select to include in their profile. This is from a list of about 100. Yet, that "select specialism" list only shows a handful. The reason for this is that this database is used by a number of other sites who have their own filters and its just one big bundle of variations. Auto-enrolment is listed at least 6 times. A mixture of upper/lower case spelling and wording. e.g. Auto Enrolment, auto enrollment, auto enrollment & workplace pensions, workplace pensions & auto enrolment. So, if someone picked "Auto Enrolment" as a filter, it would not show any of the advisers that have the other versions in the list. So, stick to the refine search only.

Finally, that list of advsers is both FA and IFA. You would to ask the firm in question or check their website, if they have one, if they are indpendent or not.

rubble2

Thanks for the info on finding an IFA - plenty to think about there.