Retirement Advice and Planning

How much money do you need to be able to enjoy your retirement?  For many, retirement may seem a long way off, so rather than face the question today it is put off until tomorrow. Sadly, as we all know, most people start out with good intentions but are diverted from the real issue until it is too late to make proper plans. They essentially have failed to plan rather than planned to fail!

Pension and Retirement Planning

By carefully planning today, you can make sure that you get a handle on what funds you will need to enjoy your desired lifestyle in retirement.

A lot of people think that pensions are about as exciting as watching paint dry and they are probably right!  The descriptive language used by a whole range of pension professionals, ranging from Actuaries, Pension Consultants, Financial Advisers and the Golf club expert is probably best summed up as gobbledegook.

There is no shortage of information on pensions. The internet will provide you with a whole host of information but like with everything ‘technical’ a little knowledge on a wide subject, can be very dangerous!  

Boring it may be, but if you want the chance of a relatively more exciting retirement it is a must!

We have shown below a number of the most pertinent questions people need to address.

• Why it’s necessary to understand some demographic ‘facts of life’
• Why pension planning is only part of planning an adequate retirement income
• Why many pension plans are likely to be inadequate
• Why the tax advantages of pension plans may not be a good enough reason for investing in them
• Pros and Cons of Stakeholder Pensions, Executive Pensions and Personal Pension Plans
• How to decide how to take your pension benefits and keep open the option of early retirement

Tomorrow, viewed from today

It is very important to start from a solid base of knowledge about your current pension situation. If you have not reviewed your pensions lately now is the time to start. Using some fairly basic assumptions it will be possible to highlight any shortfalls and more importantly offer guidance on how to secure the retirement you want.

You will probably fall into one of the two following categories:-

Funding for retirement:-

• Personal Pensions and Stakeholder Pensions
• Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPP) and Small Self Administered Pension Schemes (SSAS)
• Occupational Pensions
• Investment Advice

Options at Retirement:-

• State Pension
• Annuity purchase
• Phased retirement
• Unsecured Income (Income Drawdown)
• Alternatively Secured Income (Post age 75)

PPA can help you with pension and retirement planning as part of our comprehensive Financial Planning or as ‘one off ‘ advice.