Managing Your Pension(s) So Your Retirement Shapes Up How You Want It To
As 2024 is almost upon us, it brings with it a renewed sense of opportunity and a chance to prioritise aspects of our lives that may have been overlooked.
One such aspect is your pension. Managing your pension(s) isn’t the most exciting of tasks but the impact on your future cannot be overstated. So let’s explore how to get your pension in order and make sure your retirement is shaping up how you want it to.
Do you have more than one pension?
If you’ve had jobs in the past and left pensions behind, you might benefit from consolidating your pensions into a single plan.
Managing several pensions from different providers can be challenging, making it difficult to keep track of their individual values, performance, and administrative fees.
Any pensions you’ve stopped paying into also stay relatively static, with their value influenced only by the performance of the pension fund. And any gains your pension makes may be diminished by administrative fees.
Consolidating pensions
The question naturally arises: should you consolidate them into a single pension plan?
It seems like a straightforward idea—consolidate all your pensions into one plan for a clear view of your retirement savings. While this option works well for many, there are considerations before making the move.
Here’s a brief rundown of the pros and cons, but for peace of mind, consulting with a pensions or financial advisor is always a wise step if you’re not certain.
Pros
Simplified Management: Bringing your pensions under one plan means dealing with just one provider, making overall management easier.
Enhanced Tracking: Whether online or through an app, monitoring your pension’s value and your retirement progress becomes more accessible.
Potential Fee Reduction: Combining pensions may lead to lower administrative fees, allowing more of your money to contribute to your pension.
Cons
Risk of Losing Benefits: Your existing pension might include some of these benefits and you may lose them so you’d need to thoroughly check first.
- Guaranteed income
- Tax-free withdrawal
- Loyalty bonuses
- Early access perks
If you want to maximise your pensions performance, our pensions experts are here to review your current arrangements. We’ll be able to tell you how your pensions are currently being managed and if there’s a better way to make you money go further.
We provide professional, regulated advice based on the individual circumstances and tax position of each client. Please note that tax rules may be subject to change in future.
Get In Touch Today
We hope that you will find this publication useful. Please get in touch if you wish to explore how these changes may affect you or for a no-obligation discussion around your financial plans.