Preparing for an interview with an adviser

akwexavante

NoMore said:

TBH You don't sound like you need a paid for advisor, you just need to understand the options available to you. As has been pointed out by at least 3 people in the thread get a telephone appointment with moneyhelper who will help explain these options to you, for free. Pension Wise: free pension guidance | MoneyHelper

Plus if you state the amount in pension (roughly), age and objective (currently take £600 a month), you probably find that the forum can come up with a good plan for you. For instance, if you have no income in a tax year, you could get up to £16760 out of a Pension tax free, by utilising your income tax allowance and tax free cash. Use about half of this for your 600 a month and put the rest in ISA, to be drawn tax free later.

Thank you MoMore,

I'm profoundly deaf and voice and video calls are difficult and very difficult if the other person has an accent and completely impossible if the person has a foreign accent. I could use webchat i suppose, but that would be a very long chat session. I need one on one, face to face help in person.

Give me set of drawings, access to a scientist, a mathematician and some who can read and understand a manual, a hammer a saw and a tape rule and i'll build you a replacement International Space Station. Ask me to read, understand a manual and do the maths myself, and you've got no chance. I could build you a double-decker luxury coach though without a manual with one hand tied behind my back blindfolded!!!   I find reading and mathematics, even simple words and numbers very difficult.  I rely heavily on a spelling and grammar checker to write these words.

Although i don't understand your second paragraph i like the sound of what you are saying, but not knowing how to implement this i really would struggle and combine that with the fear of making a mistake that could cost me dearly i don't think i could do it.

NoMore

Pension Wise access adjustments | MoneyHelper

They can do face to face at citizens advice.

DRS1

Or they can use something called Relay UK

"If phone conversations are difficult, you can contact us using Relay UK. This confidential service lets you type directly to one of our specialists using a textphone or app. "

Sorry I guess that means reading.

DRS1

A lot of the discussion on this thread relates to DC pensions.

As I recall from your other thread you also have a pension in the PPF (FAS).  That is not DC.  You need to check what that will pay you and when.

You mentioned a third pension but I cannot recall if you had any details of that one.

If that is a DB pension (like the PPF one) then you may not be merging any of these pensions into one.

You also need to be thinking about how much taxable income you have now and how much you will have after the PPF pension and the state pension kick in (may not be at the same time).  I know you say you don't want to pay income tax but it may well be wise to get more out of your DC pension while your other income is low so you use up all your personal allowance at the very least.  An IFA could help you decide the best way to get the money out of your DC pension while keeping your tax bill low.

akwexavante

DRS1 said:

A lot of the discussion on this thread relates to DC pensions.

As I recall from your other thread you also have a pension in the PPF (FAS).  That is not DC.  You need to check what that will pay you and when.

You mentioned a third pension but I cannot recall if you had any details of that one.

If that is a DB pension (like the PPF one) then you may not be merging any of these pensions into one.

You also need to be thinking about how much taxable income you have now and how much you will have after the PPF pension and the state pension kick in (may not be at the same time).  I know you say you don't want to pay income tax but it may well be wise to get more out of your DC pension while your other income is low so you use up all your personal allowance at the very least.  An IFA could help you decide the best way to get the money out of your DC pension while keeping your tax bill low.

I don't even know what a DC or a DB is or and what this means or how to find out.  It could google it but i still probably wouldn't understand, and if you asked me what they were tomorrow i'll have forgotten.

I will start getting my pension from the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) in Oct 27 and is it estimated to be £969.31 a year. I don't know if this will be paid annually as a single lump sum or monthly in smaller bits, but it's roughly working out at £18 a week or £80 a month.

My full state pension will kick in, in Oct 29.

I have a pension pot with Legal & General that can be converted into an annuity or transferred out, it's currently worth £38K to transfer.

I have a pension pot with Zurich that can be converted into an annuity or transferred out, it's currently worth, i think it was £128K.

I currently have no taxable income at all.

My Zurich pot is three past frozen pensions bundled together in the mid late 90's'ish, The Legal & General pot was a frozen pot that could not be bundled with the others nor could i do anything else with it so it had to be left as is.

DRS1 said:

Or they can use something called Relay UK

"If phone conversations are difficult, you can contact us using Relay UK. This confidential service lets you type directly to one of our specialists using a textphone or app. "

Sorry I guess that means reading.

Reading in itself is not generally an issue where wordage used is simple but when people say you can a sft with an fgrt and convert that into a 123xyz and but only if the fund is a DC where ghty is lower than dfg and this and that and you must do liu before you do a sdf.... tooooo much, i can't do it

Give me a complex piece of flat packed furniture in a cardboard box. Show me a photograph of it built and take it away. I'll have it built in no time first time. Insist that i read and follow instructions in an assembly guide it'll take me a week and i'll get something wrong more than once!  I can't read a novel, i get lost on the page and have to start over and over and over and give in. I can't drive a vehicle or use a piece of machinery and have a conversation with someone at the same time. I can't build a piece of flat pack furniture and have a conversation at the same time. Give me a complex 2D or 3D drawing and some tools, leave me alone and i'll build you a power station.

LHW99

Do you have any paperwork that says the names of your pensions?

If so, see if you can find your nearest citizen's advice and get an appointment.

Take the papers with you, and ask them to talk you through it.

They are used to helping people who find text difficult, and those who have hearing problems.

MallyGirl

akwexavante said:

DRS1 said:

A lot of the discussion on this thread relates to DC pensions.

As I recall from your other thread you also have a pension in the PPF (FAS).  That is not DC.  You need to check what that will pay you and when.

You mentioned a third pension but I cannot recall if you had any details of that one.

If that is a DB pension (like the PPF one) then you may not be merging any of these pensions into one.

You also need to be thinking about how much taxable income you have now and how much you will have after the PPF pension and the state pension kick in (may not be at the same time).  I know you say you don't want to pay income tax but it may well be wise to get more out of your DC pension while your other income is low so you use up all your personal allowance at the very least.  An IFA could help you decide the best way to get the money out of your DC pension while keeping your tax bill low.

I don't even know what a DC or a DB is or and what this means or how to find out.  It could google it but i still probably wouldn't understand, and if you asked me what they were tomorrow i'll have forgotten.

I will start getting my pension from the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) in Oct 27 and is it estimated to be £969.31 a year. I don't know if this will be paid annually as a single lump sum or monthly in smaller bits, but it's roughly working out at £18 a week or £80 a month.

My full state pension will kick in, in Oct 29.

I have a pension pot with Legal & General that can be converted into an annuity or transferred out, it's currently worth £38K to transfer.

I have a pension pot with Zurich that can be converted into an annuity or transferred out, it's currently worth, i think it was £128K.

I currently have no taxable income at all.

My Zurich pot is three past frozen pensions bundled together in the mid late 90's'ish, The Legal & General pot was a frozen pot that could not be bundled with the others nor could i do anything else with it so it had to be left as is.

DRS1 said:

Or they can use something called Relay UK

"If phone conversations are difficult, you can contact us using Relay UK. This confidential service lets you type directly to one of our specialists using a textphone or app. "

Sorry I guess that means reading.

Reading in itself is not generally an issue where wordage used is simple but when people say you can a sft with an fgrt and convert that into a 123xyz and but only if the fund is a DC where ghty is lower than dfg and this and that and you must do liu before you do a sdf.... tooooo much, i can't do it

Give me a complex piece of flat packed furniture in a cardboard box. Show me a photograph of it built and take it away. I'll have it built in no time first time. Insist that i read and follow instructions in an assembly guide it'll take me a week and i'll get something wrong more than once!  I can't read a novel, i get lost on the page and have to start over and over and over and give in. I can't drive a vehicle or use a piece of machinery and have a conversation with someone at the same time. I can't build a piece of flat pack furniture and have a conversation at the same time. Give me a complex 2D or 3D drawing and some tools, leave me alone and i'll build you a power station.

I am happy to try and explain some of the basics avoiding technical terms and abbreviations if you want to go down that route instead of Citizens Advice 

DRS1

Well I have tried imagining ways of putting things like DB and DC into pictures but I am a bit stumped.  A pot of gold was an obvious one for DC pots.  A conveyor belt of cuddly toys was one thought for a DB pension (or an annuity).  And one of those measuring jugs with figures up the side suggested itself for seeing how your income was rising against the personal allowance or the higher rate tax threshold.

But that was as far as I got.

Youtube videos are a good source of pensions info eg Pensioncraft.  But I don't know if they come with sub-titles.

One thing I would say is are you paying for any of these interviews you are having?  The first one may be free but follow ups usually aren't.

And it would be worth checking up on why the Legal & General pension had to be kept separate.  It may have some special ("safeguarded") benefits.  If it has then it would pay to know if that requires you to take the pension in a particular way and at a particular time (eg an annuity when you are 65)

akwexavante

A Big thank you to DRS1 and MallyGirl and others that have posted thus far,

Well I have tried imagining ways of putting things like DB and DC into pictures, but I am a bit stumped.  

If i was to say to you "At 3.30pm this afternoon i recorded a SEO SW of PP" would you understand what i saw and where?

I would write to novice, "At 3.30pm this afternoon i recorded a Short Eared Owl (SEO) SW of Pete's Pond" (PP).  I would probably not have to explain what an SEO was, but i may have to elaborate on where PP was, where to park and how to access the pond.

Simple words and no abbreviations of words or phrases to start with........ when reading if i get a word or abbreviation i don't understand i have to stop find out what the word or abbreviation means after which i have to start reading the text from the very beginning again, not pick up from where i left off.  If theirs a lot of text to go through i can get lost in an unfathomably sea of words and lose track of where i am and have to start again from the beginning and enter into an endless loop never finishing, getting to the end.

I do now understand what a Defined Contribution (DC) and a Defined Benefit (DB) is, well simplistically anyway.

I know that my Zurich pension is a Defined Contribution Pension and my Legal & General pot is a Defined Benefit Pension.  I gather that i can transfer my Zurich pension but not my legal & general pot. The costs to transfer it would be far too high and not beneficial.

I'm told that all visits / consultations, however many, are free. I'll only have to pay something when i decide to go ahead with whatever, if anything at all.

I won't be able to reply and or contribute any further until Monday, as i'm taking myself off for a long walk!

DRS1

All I can say about owls is I sometimes hear one but I never see it.