If you haven’t already spoken to someone, please get some pension advice.
You could try our free pension review to start you off, or talk to any local pension advisor. The main thing is that you get pension advice, because according to research by Mattioli Woods, nearly 70% of people over 55 did not know that pensions will become part of their estate from next year.
That means inheritance tax (IHT) may be claimed on their pensions. With only 15% of people knowing what the nil rate band for inheritance tax currently stands at, it makes it more likely that they could fall into the IHT trap.
Hargreaves Lansdown found recently that only 50% of people realised that their pension was invested in the markets.
Couples living together also need pension advice because the rules aren’t the same if you’re not married. Scottish Widows found that less than 30% of couples living together planned for their retirement together, but they should be. Married couples are not much better at financial planning. According to Quilter 46% of married couples plan their finances independently. This is a big mistake as they are likely to be missing out on joint financial planning benefits. Advisor have found that couples are more confident about their future when they take pension advice together as a couple.
In 10% of cases one person has complete control of the finances. But in these cases, Quilter found that the one looking after the finances felt that it was a big burden and wished their partners were more involved.
We will only provide advice to both partners in a relationship because we only provide holistic advice.
People worried about their pensions.
Overall, the pension advice picture is a bleak one. Wealth at Work found that 40% of workers were worried that they would never be able to retire and 80% think that they will have to work longer to earn enough to retire. A pension review would confirm your current position and give you a clear understanding of your retirement options.
Even those who think they will be able to retire are concerned that rising living costs will make them worse off.
Having said that over £160 billion is now invested through work place pensions in the UK. Over 80% of employees save into a pension through work that’s almost 25 million people. The same can’t be said for the self employed however.
People also regret making the wrong choices.
According to research by Quilter, 60% of people who took their tax-free cash ahead of worries about the budget last year now regret their decisions. If they had a pension advisor that wouldn’t have been the case.
Pension transfer advice likely to be in demand.
The government is confident that the pensions dashboard will finally be operational next year. The dashboard will bring together details of everyone’s workplace pensions, as pension providers are being required to submit all their records into a central source. There are already 70 million records on the system which is 85% complete.
On the back of this the government hopes that people will take notice of what they have and seek advice to make sure their money is working for them. This might lead to a deluge of pension transfers which need advisors to put in place. Demand is likely to out strip supply, so having a pension advisor now is a good idea.
But please remember that pension providers aren’t allowed to call you to offer their products and services. This is a good way of spotting scam. If someone calls you over the phone to discuss a new pension scheme for you – then it’s a scam.
According to Wealth at Work 60% of workers have more then one work place pension. As we also know there are over 3 million lost pension pots sitting unclaimed worth over £30 billion.
Get more information.
If you would like pension advice or inheritance tax advice, then why not contact Christina today. We offer a free initial meeting to discuss your requirements and explain how our service works. You are under no obligation to use us after that if you don’t want to and we won’t pester you.
So why not call us today on 01282 614444 or e mail us enquiries@ccfps.co.uk or use our contact form online.
Or if you’d prefer to think about it some more, why not have a look at our Facebook page, our Vouched For page, or our Testimonials page to see what our customers think about us.
