How do the markets affect us?...pensions

Over the past week, we have had journalists, politicians & academics talking about...the markets.

So, how do the markets affect us?

The most direct way is a fair portion of people's pension money will be invested in UK shares. So if shares rise, your pension can go up, if they go down your pension value goes down.

If your pension has been invested in UK shares, your pension has probably  gone nowhere in the last 10 years.If that is the case, it is worth taking advice from a professional adviser about how to spread the risk and diversify.


Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Tax Free Cash...Pension Age Changes

This year you will have seen discussion about whether to take tax free cash from pensions, especially if the person is between 50 & 55.

The minimum age you can take pension benefits goes up from 50 to 55 on 6th April 2010.

This has prompted debate on whether to take tax free cash. Should you take it?

The answer is..it depends on your personal circumstances, tax status and your other assets.
It is a complicated issue.

Please do not take the decision without taking professional advice, it could save you £1000s.....

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Tax Relief on Pensions: Budget 2009

One of the big areas you can save money on income tax is by putting the money into a pension rather than taking it as salary. Currently you could save up to 40p tax for every £1 in salary.

For people earning over £150 000. This will be reduced over the next few years from 40% to 20% tax relief.

Pensions experts are already devising ways round this....

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Free Pension Facsheets

Factsheets published by the FSA on pensions & retirement.

Pensions Colour / Ink friendly

Retiring soon Colour / Ink friendly

Retirement options Colour / Ink friendly

Managing in retirement Colour / Ink friendly

Your pension – it's time to choose Colour / Ink friendly

Your retirement options – income withdrawal Colour / Ink friendly

Equity release schemes – raising money from your home Colour / Ink friendly

Stakeholder pensions and decision trees Colour / Ink friendly

The State Second Pension (formerly SERPS) – should you be contracted out?
Colour / Ink friendly

Pension transfers – the risks of salary-related occupational pension transfers
Colour / Ink friendly

Important information about your yearly pension statement Colour / Ink friendly

Posted by Sean Wilson, Independent Financial Adviser, Swindon, Wiltshire.

Would you trust Richard Branson & Virgin with your money?

“Would you rather give your pension, to get you through retirement, to a number of Scottish financial institutions that have been around for a few hundred years and are financially secure”

“Or rather give it to a group by someone who made his name selling records and has since dabbled in gyms, trains, mobiles and more recently financial services?”

“Buying a pension or life assurance is not the same as buying a plane ticket or a CD”

"I can see no reason why anyone would want to do business with the Virgin Group for financial services. It is not offering anyhting that yo cannot get better from other financial institutions"

The views of Lawrence Gosling in this week’s Investment Week (3/12/07)

Diary of Swindon Financial Adviser

What does a financial adviser do during the course of a day?
Well...today...

9am-1pm
Presentations & meetings with product providers and other financial advisers in Wootton Bassett (near Swindon).
Some are interesting, others...less so (meetings & financial advisers)

1-2pm
Lunch

2pm-5pm
Chase up tardy mortgage lenders & insurance companies. The culprits? Royal Bank of Scotland & Norwich Union.
Sort out details of client's pension & annuity
Reply to client emails.
Speak to the lovely L2, mortgage guru in Leicester.

7pm meet a client to discuss pensions in North Swindon

8pm plus: possibly catch a bit of Chelsea vs Man Utd

State pension: why the problem?

It was the 1925 Contributory Pensions Act that first enshrined 65 as the pensionable age for men, though it was 1946 before the scheme became universal.

In 1925 act, the life expectancy of a newborn male baby was about 56. Retirement was never envisaged as a stage that almost everyone would reach - and even those who did so could not expect to enjoy it for more than around 11 years, on average.
Compare that with today. Since 1946, life expectancy at birth has increased by about 10 years, and people who reach 65 can look forward, on average, to almost two more decades of life.

Apply the same reasoning as in 1946, and we would not be arguing about a rise in pension age from 65 to 67. We would be talking about working until you were 75 or 80, today's life expectancies for British men and women. Much as that might thrill the Treasury, it is a suggestion that would, one suspects, put the current furore in a certain amount of perspective.

Related:Final Salary Pensions, SIPPs