Decent / Flexible Pension Calculator Sites

dorks

Im in my mid forties, work in a pensions firm and starting to keep a good eye on my pension.
My work "benefits" site used to provide a fantastic independent pensions calculator that was very flexible and allowed you to slice and dice your potential benefits in many different ways. However, for some reason, they have now replaced this with an Aegon pension calculator that I consider to be a lot worse.

• one of my company's pensions advisers suggested a while back that its in an insurers interest to underplay pension figures as they want you to 'scare you' to invest more. The new figures I get back from this site appear to support that fact.
• this new Aegon site only has either pension forecasts OR draw-down OR taking it all as cash. The previous, independent site allowed you to do a mixture of all three and I have always based my future on taking 25% cash and 50/50 pension draw-down with the rest.

Does anyone know of any decent alternative online pension calculators with that ability to choose the draw-down vs pension amounts rather than one or the other?

ian16527

Try Aviva site

dorks

thanks, but again, Aviva is a "this is what happens if you choose 100% drawdown" and "this is what happens when you choose 100% pension". There rarely seems to be calculators that you can say, for example, 60/40.

SonOf

one of my company's pensions advisers suggested a while back that its in an insurers interest to underplay pension figures as they want you to 'scare you' to invest more. The new figures I get back from this site appear to support that fact.

Sometimes the reality is much more simple.

The FCA set the limits on what providers can use in their projections and reviews these every 5 years. It has been lowering the projection rates nearly every single review. There was also the move to SMPI basis from monetary growth basis (showing in todays terms rather than future money terms) that is frequently misunderstood by consumers. Many now think that the FCA projection limits are too low and are doing more damage than good.

If it interests you, here is the last review.
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/research/rates-return-fca-prescribed-projections.pdf

It is possible for financial companies to move away from the FCA rates under certain circumstances but providers tend to stick to the FCA limits.

cfw1994

dorks wrote: »

Im in my mid forties, work in a pensions firm and starting to keep a good eye on my pension.
My work "benefits" site used to provide a fantastic independent pensions calculator that was very flexible and allowed you to slice and dice your potential benefits in many different ways. However, for some reason, they have now replaced this with an Aegon pension calculator that I consider to be a lot worse.

• one of my company's pensions advisers suggested a while back that its in an insurers interest to underplay pension figures as they want you to 'scare you' to invest more. The new figures I get back from this site appear to support that fact.
• this new Aegon site only has either pension forecasts OR draw-down OR taking it all as cash. The previous, independent site allowed you to do a mixture of all three and I have always based my future on taking 25% cash and 50/50 pension draw-down with the rest.

Does anyone know of any decent alternative online pension calculators with that ability to choose the draw-down vs pension amounts rather than one or the other?

LOL - & you work in a pensions firm - what hope is there for the rest of us!!!!

Aviva looked okay to me.....
Having just run a test annuity check at https://moneyfacts.co.uk/retirement/annuities, I was STUNNED at how low the numbers are. 50% left for spouse, 3% allowed for annual growth: for me, a 100K pot led to just £2,275 pa!
All I am saying here is that I will be using drawdown for my pot - even naysayers seem to think 3.5% is a reasonable number to use!

FWIW, I have (as many perhaps do) a spreadsheet designed to model things over a 30-40 year timeframe. More aimed (for me) at the years 55-onwards, to try to model differing scenarios and a few pensions/investments being available at certain points over the years ahead...very happy to share that (just message me your email) - would welcome more eyes to scan it.
For you, you would need to figure out the pot available when you are a similar age....
& to end - I am NOT a FA/IFA, this is all the ramblings of a madman who likes excel!

dorks

cfw1994 wrote: »

LOL - & you work in a pensions firm - what hope is there for the rest of us!!!!

Aviva looked okay to me.....
Having just run a test annuity check at https://moneyfacts.co.uk/retirement/annuities, I was STUNNED at how low the numbers are. 50% left for spouse, 3% allowed for annual growth: for me, a 100K pot led to just £2,275 pa!
All I am saying here is that I will be using drawdown for my pot - even naysayers seem to think 3.5% is a reasonable number to use!

FWIW, I have (as many perhaps do) a spreadsheet designed to model things over a 30-40 year timeframe. More aimed (for me) at the years 55-onwards, to try to model differing scenarios and a few pensions/investments being available at certain points over the years ahead...very happy to share that (just message me your email) - would welcome more eyes to scan it.
For you, you would need to figure out the pot available when you are a similar age....
& to end - I am NOT a FA/IFA, this is all the ramblings of a madman who likes excel!

Happy to have a look at your Excel sheet as I am a bit of a geek myself - whilst working in a pensions firm, I dont directly do the pensions piece, but I have a reasonable idea and interest in this. Have been overpaying for many years and would like to scale back nowadays to try and enjoy life a bit more now. Will message you my email.

ian16527

dorks wrote: »

thanks, but again, Aviva is a "this is what happens if you choose 100% drawdown" and "this is what happens when you choose 100% pension". There rarely seems to be calculators that you can say, for example, 60/40.

Just split your pension pot to the required percentage, and use this for your input. This will then give you your answer for the 3 options, drawdown, annuity and full amount if I remember correctly.
So if you want 60% drawdown, then use that figure, then recalucate using 40% and take the annuity answer.
I have made a rough spreadsheet too, but I also downloaded one from this site, but that was for drawdown only, but again you can adapt it by adjusting the starting pot

cfw1994

dorks wrote: »

Happy to have a look at your Excel sheet as I am a bit of a geek myself - whilst working in a pensions firm, I dont directly do the pensions piece, but I have a reasonable idea and interest in this. Have been overpaying for many years and would like to scale back nowadays to try and enjoy life a bit more now. Will message you my email.

email sent!

& yes, I understand that even within a pension firm, there will be plenty of grey areas...I insist on answers in writing when I dealt with Aviva recently, as I got 'conflicting' responses when I spoke with them!

tacpot12

cfw1994 wrote: »

email sent!

& yes, I understand that even within a pension firm, there will be plenty of grey areas...I insist on answers in writing when I dealt with Aviva recently, as I got 'conflicting' responses when I spoke with them!

This is one reason why I manage my own pension in a SIPP. I don't get conflicting advice from myself!

cfw1994

tacpot12 wrote: »

This is one reason why I manage my own pension in a SIPP. I don't get conflicting advice from myself!

Oh lawks, I kind of manage my fund choices, & I CONSTANTLY get irritating arguments in my head!

Thrugelmir

cfw1994 wrote: »

Having just run a test annuity check at https://moneyfacts.co.uk/retirement/annuities, I was STUNNED at how low the numbers are. 50% left for spouse, 3% allowed for annual growth: for me, a 100K pot led to just £2,275 pa!
All I am saying here is that I will be using drawdown for my pot - even naysayers seem to think 3.5% is a reasonable number to use!

Modelling is all very well. Choosing the investments is going to be the challenging part. The old 60/40 portfolio split no longer rings true. Decent yield on investments is going to require an increased level of risk being taken.