Lifetime allowance

Triumph13

The key question is what is your marginal tax rate now and what will it be in retirement? If you are getting 40% relief on your contributions and will pay 20% in retirement then it's not really worth worrying about LTA too much as you'll get 40% relief going in and pay 40% going out (25% LTA charge + 20% of the remainder). If you have salary sacrifice you can even still be quids in.

saver_ali

I've been following the strategy of crystallising most of my husband's various DC pensions, but leaving enough LTA slack for his DB in 4 years time. The process has been taking some time, being held up by the need to transfer schemes first. He's now 48% of LTA with DC so far, and DB will be about 34%. His uncrystallised DC would be about 18% of LTA at current values, which is too close for comfort.

I'm thinking of holding off any further crystallisation in view of the current political turmoil, to see what happens. If they do something about doctors' pensions and increase the LTA for them, then there's always the hope that it will roll out to everyone.

Alternatively, some political parties would see "wealthy" pensioners as an easy target, and a future government might reduce the LTA further, or find some other mechanism for increasing taxation on pensions. (Sorry, I'm not trying to start a political debate, just trying to think of possible considerations for the future.)

It would be so much easier for us all to plan if there was some stability!