Added Pension V alternatives

The_Judder

Hi this is my first posting on this site.

I am currently a member of the classic CS pension scheme and was looking at options of boosting my pension.

The options were:

Added years
CSAVCs
Stakeholder pension
Personal Pension


The Added years option was removed wef Apr 2008 and was replaced with an added pension option, i.e you pay a monthly contribution which will buy you an added pension in the future.

I was looking at added years but this is now gone (I wonder why )

I cannot see the advantage of CSAVCs over stakeholder pensions (unless somebody can advise me otherwise) and therefore I was going to go down the added pension route.

I am generally risk adverse.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Retired_I.F.A.

If you could get professional advice on investments and with reasonable, expectations to future growth of your pension fund expect to as much as double the yield offered by your employers scheme and then come the time you want to take the benefits take them in a way that will double your immediate income again compared to the no choice annuity of the employers scheme would you say that would be better?

If Yes then go see an IFA and do a PPP and look forward to drawdown in retirement.

If No then buy added years/added pension

Just remember if you say no and if investment returns and below expectations which in turn make your employers the owners of scheme reduce members benefits you chose such. Conversely if investment returns are higher than expected don't think you'll get a penny more because you wont. Although the employer may well be on a contributions holiday.

oops sorry added years is already a dead option. I wonder why?

There is risks either way, even if you put you extra contributions into a cash ISA your gambling against the odds that it'll even keep up with inflation.