Retirements and Pension advice

TheSecretLemonadeDrinker

Hi All

First post, long-time lurker.

Need advice on what I should do… 60 years old and transitioning into my third act, have worked in financial services all my career. Have the following assets.

Home (House, worth about £1.3M, no mortgage)

Old DB Pension about £24k per year currently, can take it now or up to official retirement in four years. Increases tracked with CPI. Additionally, I possess another small DB pension and am currently determining its value.

Very small another DC workplace pension with about a TV of £15k.

SIPP (on two platforms) of about £1.2M.

GIA (on two platforms) about £2.0M. plus ISA’ s of about £300k.

Currently annual expenditure (for everything), is about £55k per year…

Overall happy with the way my investments have performed, all in global trackers now or Money market funds. I will conclude my final consultancy gig in a couple of months (I said this last year and jumped back in after 6 months of ‘retirement’, but this time I mean it)

What I do need is advice to how best to manage my pensions and finances going forward to minimise tax and maximise opportunity. Should I take my DB pensions now, or just use the GIA down? What to do with the SIPP? Still pay into it.? Are annuities worth it, or should I just run a gilt ladder?  My other half is independently wealthy and does not need support. No children.

Would like to know what folks think, and if I should seek a good IFA/Tax consultant? How does one find them? (Have spoken to a couple of IFAs over many years and they leave me stone cold, as they just try and sell me a load of guff policies). I would prefer to pay a fixed fee for advice and a financial plan, rather than buy a product.

Any help appreciated.

DRS1

From a tax point of view you have too much in a GIA and not enough in your ISAs.  But perhaps the GIA isn't generating much income.

Personally I would let the DB schemes run till NRA.  If it turns out you go back to work again after 6 months you can't put that pension back in its box.

I would get some annuity quotes (eg from Moneyhelper or HL) just to see what income you could get from the SIPP/DC pension.  But you are surely more than capable of operating drawdown?

Is there a reason to keep the small DC pension separate?  I think it is too big for a small pot trivial commutation.  Why not add it to the SIPP?

TheSecretLemonadeDrinker

Thank you for the reply,

Agree re the GIA and SIPP, and I should have managed this better over the years, as all of my speculative investments/bets were in that and it had large increases. All sold now, into global trackers and a money market fund and balance between the two (life is simpler this way, without direct investing in company shares)

Yes, will move the DC Pension. The DB schemes are my safety net and will keep them rolling until I am 65, I think.

Linton

TheSecretLemonadeDrinker said:

Hi All

First post, long-time lurker.

Need advice on what I should do… 60 years old and transitioning into my third act, have worked in financial services all my career. Have the following assets.

Home (House, worth about £1.3M, no mortgage)

Old DB Pension about £24k per year currently, can take it now or up to official retirement in four years. Increases tracked with CPI. Additionally, I possess another small DB pension and am currently determining its value.

Very small another DC workplace pension with about a TV of £15k.

SIPP (on two platforms) of about £1.2M.

GIA (on two platforms) about £2.0M. plus ISA’ s of about £300k.

Currently annual expenditure (for everything), is about £55k per year…

Overall happy with the way my investments have performed, all in global trackers now or Money market funds. I will conclude my final consultancy gig in a couple of months (I said this last year and jumped back in after 6 months of ‘retirement’, but this time I mean it)

What I do need is advice to how best to manage my pensions and finances going forward to minimise tax and maximise opportunity. Should I take my DB pensions now, or just use the GIA down? What to do with the SIPP? Still pay into it.? Are annuities worth it, or should I just run a gilt ladder?  My other half is independently wealthy and does not need support. No children.

Would like to know what folks think, and if I should seek a good IFA/Tax consultant? How does one find them? (Have spoken to a couple of IFAs over many years and they leave me stone cold, as they just try and sell me a load of guff policies). I would prefer to pay a fixed fee for advice and a financial plan, rather than buy a product.

Any help appreciated.

You seem to be asking detailed implementation questions before saying exactly what you want to achieve...

The situation appears to be:
 - Your investable assets total £3.5M. 
 - You say your income needs are £55K net, say £70K gross.  After you discount the £24K DB pension and say £11K SP that makes the gross  income from investments £35K/year.
 - Generating £35K/year inflation linked for the rest of your life could be achieved with a pension lump sum of less than £800K for an annuity  or a somewhat larger lump sum if you wanted the flexibility of drawing down income from investments.

What is the remaining £2.7M for and when?  That is surely what will drive your investment and tax strategy, not the relatively small tranche required to meet your income needs.

ali_bear

Sounds like you are very comfortably off. I think you just need to work out what you want to do. And then find a good IFA who can understand your predicament and get you set up with whatever. 

Albermarle

Would like to know what folks think, and if I should seek a good IFA/Tax consultant? How does one find them? (Have spoken to a couple of IFAs over many years and they leave me stone cold, as they just try and sell me a load of guff policies). I would prefer to pay a fixed fee for advice and a financial plan, rather than buy a product.

Normally an IFA will want you to transfer your pensions and investments to providers they normally work with, and charge you a fee for that, and then an ongoing fee. 
However there is no reason that you can not pay for a plan/review, and stick largely with your own current providers and continue to manage your finances on a day to day basis.
The 'problem' is that not all IFA's seem to be keen to do this, preferring the first approach, but some will.
The second 'problem' is your assets have reached a level where you will be out of some IFA's league, especially regarding good tax management, which gets more complicated above a certain level.

GunJack

TheSecretLemonadeDrinker said:

. The DB schemes are my safety net and will keep them rolling until I am 65, I think.

Mate you don't need a "safety net", you've got more than enough to last you a couple of lifetimes never mind a 40ish year retirement - stop worrying about paying a bit of tax, pack in work and enjoy life....