Pension Advisor in Lymington

You don’t need a financial advisor for the state pension. But if your pension is based on investment performance it would be a wise move.

According to research by Zurich almost 41% of those in drawdown without advice will run out of money in retirement.

A financial advisor can help you create a plan to build your pension pot to provide a sustainable income in retirement. They'll advise on the best way to invest your pension to maximise returns and mitigate investment risk according to your individual appetite and capacity for risk.

They'll also be able to help you access your money in a tax-efficient way, especially if you plan to use flexi-access drawdown where blending your tax-free cash with your pension income could save you paying unnecessary tax.

Regulated Financial Advice

Financial Advisors in the UK are required to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. They are required to follow a strict code of conduct designed to protect the client's best interest.

When you work with an authorised Financial Advisor you are protected by the Financial Ombudsman. 

If you self-invest your money is not protected in the same way, especially if you fall foul of a pension scam. You can find more information on avoiding pension scams in our handy guide. 

Financial Advisor for Final Salary Pension 

If your Final Salary pension is worth less than £30,000 you are free to transfer your pension yourself without seeking advice. 

If your transfer value is higher than £30,000 then it is a regulatory requirement that you seek ‘appropriate’ advice from a qualified pension transfer specialist. This means they will need to provide you with an in-depth report exploring your suitability to transfer and a personal recommendation to transfer or not.

Things a pension transfer specialist will consider:

• Your age
• Your financial situation and obligations
• Your long-term goals and motivations for transfer
• Any retirement plans you have
• Your general health and life expectancy
• Previous Investment experience
• Your understanding of and suitability for the risks involved in pension transfer
• Future Investment strategy

Almost all of the big pension providers and platforms now require you to have a positive recommendation to transfer. Which means, if a pension transfer specialist has deemed it not in your best interests to transfer, you may find it difficult to transfer your pension yourself. 

Whilst this might seem frustrating, these rules are designed to protect you and your pension in the long term.

Even if you are able to transfer your pension yourself you should be very careful about doing so. 

Whilst some pension providers make pension transfer sound like the sort of thing you can do over a cup of tea, doing so could prove extremely costly to your future.

Paying a Financial Advisor could make you richer

The argument for not using a financial advisor stems from the theory that a financial advisor's fees can erode the value of your pension pot and leave you with less money in the long run.

But the evidence published by Royal London in 2019  suggests the opposite and shows that you’ll be wealthier in the long-term if you have a financial advisor.

Financial advisors can make sure that your investments are properly diversified.

There's been a lot said for investing in cheap tracker funds, but in our experience these are seldom where the best returns are found. 

Long-term investing is a highly nuanced area and when it comes to your long-term financial future, it's best to work with an expert.

Those who received Financial Advice added up to 39% more to their liquid assets and 21% more to their pension wealth. ILC-UK report 

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An independent financial advisor for pensions can help you with:

• Manage your risk
• Keep you on track with your goals
• Choose diversified investments (location and industry-based)
• Avoid common investor biases and expensive mistakes
• Access your money tax-efficiently
• Understand and evaluate the costs involved with different investment options
• Understand how to manage funds flexibly over the long-term
• Regularly review and refine your investments
• Keep you up to date with pension rule changes that might affect you
• Implement a Plan B, C or D

When you might need a financial adviser for drawdown

In some cases, you might need a financial adviser to help you access your pension if you plan to use flexible drawdown in retirement. Whilst UK pension rules have changed, allowing you to flexibly access your pension, some older pension schemes simply don’t have the technology in place to let you do this.  If your scheme doesn’t offer flexible drawdown, you’ll have to transfer your pension to a different provider. A financial adviser can: 

1) Check you aren’t giving up any valuable benefits by transferring your pension

2) Help you move your pension (if it’s still in your best interest to do so) 

3) Find the ‘best’ pension for you to move to based on your retirement goals.

4) Make sure you avoid risky or unregulated investments

5) Help you build a sustainable withdrawal plan – so you don’t run out of money too soon.

Want to know if your drawdown plans stack up? Try our Pension drawdown calculator 

IMPORTANT NOTE: It’s always advisable to seek financial advice before you do any kind of pension transfer to make sure that you’re not losing valuable benefits by doing so.

If you have a Final Salary Pension worth more than £30,000 you need to have sought in-depth financial advice from a qualified pension transfer specialist and have a recommendation to move your pension before you will able to move it.

If you look at the research, yes. 

Research by the International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK) backed by Royal London found those who received Financial Advice added up to 39% more to their liquid assets and 21% more to their pension wealth.

Pension advice isn't just for the wealthy: The added wealth equated to an extra £43,245 for the ‘affluent’ set and £39,895 more for those deemed ‘just getting by’.

The right financial adviser will be worth their weight in gold. It’s not just about investment returns, they are experts in the rules surrounding pensions and investments, the tax-efficiencies they can offer you alone more than cover their fees. Not to mention managing your risk, monitoring your investments and making sure they’re on track.

We’ve spoken to too many self-investors whose investment strategies are exposing them to dangerous levels of risk that they are completely unaware of. A financial advisor will build your portfolio for growth but in a way that offers you some buffer from market dips.

Unfortunately, over-confidence in self-investors is rife. Simon Garber, our pension specialist says “Many self-investors I speak to believe that they have created a portfolio that is lower risk than what they have actually created. Even after filling out a detailed risk questionnaire and having their portfolio analysed they will still believe that they know best.” 

Read more here: https://www.2020financial.co.uk/need-a-financial-advisor-for-my-pension/

The cost of pension advice varies massively. The average Pension Advisor charges around 1% for advice and then you'll pay your investment fees on top of that. Most advisors have a tiered fee structure, so the more money you have, the lower the fee you pay. 

You’ll typically pay around anywhere between 0.75%-1.25% per annum for ongoing financial advice (find our fee structure here).

We have seen some Pension Advisors charging as little as 0.35% – 0.5% but often find that when this is the case, they are outsourcing their investment decisions to a Discretionary Fund Manager, adding another layer of costs, which could typically run to a further 1% on top.

If you’re comparing pension advice costs, it’s important to understand all of the costs you could be incurring.

When you first engage a pension adviser, you’ll normally be paying for one of 2 things –

• The initial work – provide advice, do research, set up your investments,
• Ongoing management fees – manage your investments, rebalance your portfolio, reporting.

Pension Advisors don’t all charge the same way, so you might find it difficult to compare like for like. There are a number of ways you could be charged:

• Flat Fees

Flat fees are a one-off charge for the advice and implementation you receive. If you are commissioning a report or setting up something simple like a SIPP you’ll probably pay a flat fee.

You might also pay a fee for the initial work and then a flat annual fee for reviews or for any additional work your adviser does.

• Hourly Fees

Some advisors may charge by the hour for their work. You should be aware that with complex cases the research and time involved to conduct the work might be extensive. Make sure you are aware of how long the work is likely to take.

• Percentage of the Investment

Most Pension Advisors will charge a percentage of your investment amount as an ongoing fee. Some investment work is highly specialist and you may be charged more for it.

The advisor is charging for their time, expertise and they are also charging for the risk that they are taking on as a business.

Other costs of pension advice

Aside from the upfront charge and ongoing fees for financial advice that you might pay there are other investment costs involved that your Pension Advisor advisor could influence. 

Depending on the advice they give, they could save you a considerable amount of money, or cost you far more than you need to pay.

You’ll pay investment charges whether you self-invest or use a financial adviser,

N.B. if you’re using a tied adviser (e.g. St James Place, High Street Banks) you’ll only be offered their own investments, which can, in some cases, be significantly more expensive than the alternatives available.

Types of investment fees involved:

•     Platform product cost
•     Investment fund cost
•     Additional costs
•     Annual SIPP fees,
•     Drawdown charges,
•     Transactional costs to change investments
•     Exit fees

Read our full article on the costs of financial advice

You can access up to 25% of your pension tax free at 55.

• You don't have to take it all at once
• You can take smaller amounts of tax-free cash over time
• You can blend your tax-free cash with taxable withdrawals to reduce your overall tax liability

But, you should be aware that:

• Taking large amounts of your pension early in retirement could leave you short in later years.
• Once you take the money out of your pension it becomes liable for inheritance tax if you die. Money held in your pension is currently exempt 

You should also be aware that as soon as you start taking your pension as regular income you will trigger the Money Purchase Annual Allowance and you'll be limited to how much you can top your pension up by and still receive tax-relief.

Like most things in life, Pension drawdown comes with advantages and disadvantages, and whether it's a good idea for you will really depend on your own circumstances and preferences.

Flexi-access pension drawdown is a way to access your pension flexibly for age 55. It allows you to take your pension as a income but also to have the flexibility to reduce, increase, pause or stop taking your pension income as you wish.

Pension Drawdown allows you to take money from your pension whilst keeping the rest invested for your future. It's the most popular way to access your pension but it isn't without its dangers.

Benefits of Pension drawdown

• It’s flexible take more when you need it and less when you don’t
• Manage your withdrawals tax-efficiently
• May be able to defer paying Lifetime Allowance tax until you are 75
• Pass any left-over money onto beneficiaries free of Inheritance tax

Risks of Pension Drawdown

• You need to manage your money carefully to make sure you don’t run out
• Once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s not guaranteed for life like an annuity or Defined Benefit Pension

If you opt for Pension Drawdown it's important that you get the right investment advice. Managing an investment for income over an undefined length of time (like retirement) can be complex and it's estimated that of the 41% of those choosing to do so without financial advice thousands could run out of money in retirement.

A pension advisor can help you manage your withdrawals at a sustainable level and adjust your investments to minimse risk and maximise returns.

Schedule a free call today

To decide how much you need to save in a pension you need to pinpoint what type of retirement you aspire to – whether that be a comfortable or luxurious one – and build your investment plan accordingly. And then the golden rule? Get started as early as possible.

If you have a workplace pension it's important to maximise your employer contributions, so you need to find out how much you need to invest in your workplace pension to trigger the maximum employer contributions. 

It's not just employers who will contribute to your pension. The government offer tax relief that will bump up your pension pot too. Depending on whether you're a basic, higer or top rate tax payer, you can claim between 20-45% tax back on your contributions. 

How much should I have saved for retirement by age 20, 30, 40, 50+

In 2018, Fidelity released a valuable piece of research that caused waves across the industry. They stated that as a rule of thumb, people should aim to save at least 1 x their salary by the age of 30, 3x by 40, 6 x 50 and 8x by 60 so that they could land a 10x investment by the time they were 67.

In order to save enough for retirement, research shows you should aim to save 15% of your income. Of course, the later you start saving for retirement, the more you're going to need to save.

As you can see from the chart. A couple at 50 with no pension savings would need to save £1923 between them a month to retire at 65 with £503K, enough for a luxurious retirement.

At 20, a couple with no pension savings would only need to find £632 a month between them to enjoy that same luxury retirement.

How much do I need to retire?

Any retirement and pension planning starts with working out what type of retirement you want to enjoy, when you want to retire and working backwards from there.

You can use our retirement calculators to get a rough idea of how much you might need in retirement and how much you might need to invest in your pension but nothing replaces speaking to an expert and getting tailored advice.

Schedule a call with our pension advisor today 

The quick answer is you’ll need anywhere between £10,000-£30,000 a year for a single person and £17,000-£40,000 a year for a couple in retirement according to minimum income standards and industry estimates.

The reality is that retirement estimates are usually based on averages and narrow criteria which may have no bearing on your circumstances or lifestyle expectations. How much you’ll need to retire will depend entirely on you.

There are 3 main ways to work out how much you might need in retirement:

• Use Target replacement rate to estimate how much you'll need
• Use an estimate based on an industry average
• Create a tailored plan based on a solid budget

Estimate how much you'll need in retirement with Retirement Calculators

First, you'll need to know roughly how much income you'll need every year in retirement. 

Write down any large expenditure you have planned, things like:

• Paying off the mortgage
• helping kids get on the housing ladder
• World Cruise
• House renovations
• Buying a Caravan etc

Then work out how much you're likely to spend every year.

We've created a retirement lifestyle calculator for couples and one for singles to help you estimate your annual spending.

Once you've done that you can use our Retirement savings calculator to see how your savings tally with your proposed spending in retirement.

Of course, if this all feels a bit complicated, schedule a call with one of our pension advisors and they can help you build a full financial plan for retirement